GST

[brianhe]

Why do I have to pay EBay GST on Postage Costs associated with an item, when I don’t use them as a postage service.

I post items from a POST OFFICE and then pay more GST on that same postage cost. 

[padi*0409]

It's been like that for many years now on eBay - it's a Goods and Services Tax, postage is a service. You should be building it into your price so that, in effect, the buyer pays for it.

[etb321]

True, but the point being made is the gst is being paid twice. First to Ebay and again at the AP counter.  

Tom

[repentatleisure1952]

Sigh... over 1k feedback as seller... and never read an eBay announcement.

[davewil1964]

Wrong.

You are paying GST on eBay's fees, not postage. You've been around for a while, eBay have been charging this for many years. You've only just noticed?

[brianhe]

I beg to differ. If I sell an item for $10 and apply $2 postage. EBay charge their fee on $12.

[repentatleisure1952]

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@brianhe wrote:

I beg to differ. If I sell an item for $10 and apply $2 postage. EBay charge their fee on $12.

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Well yes... that has been the case for at least 8 years.... did you just discover this?

You only pat GST on the fees... as davewill has said

[davewil1964]

Correct.

You pay fees (and GST) on the total value of the sale. Including the postage component. The fees eBay charge, however, do not include GST on postage, but GST on the fees eBay apply to postage.

As has been said, you are not paying double GST.

If that is beyond your grasp, maybe do Accounting 101. Or find somewhere (not eBay) where common accounting doesn't apply.

You could always contact your local Member of Parliament. If they bother to reply, they will inform you that that is the law and has been for many years.

[gutterpunkz05]

It does not matter if you beg to differ or not, ebays fees on the total invoice is totally above board, and  GST is applicable to ebay fees.

[k1ooo-slr-sales]

**what everyone else has said** plus

For many years eBay didn't pay much tax in Australia despite huge turnover/volume of sales that generated a lot in fees.

The federal government went after eBay, Google, Facebook and other big tech to get them to pay more tax.

The easy out for eBay was to levy sellers 10% GST on their eBay fees, something that should have been happening for many years prior.

When eBay charges 13.4% fee the GST that consists of 12.2% eBay fee + 1.2% GST.

So technically, you are right that you are paying GST on postage, but only 1.2% . . .  that is actually acounted for as GST on 12.2% fees.

Nothing wrong or illegal about it.

Personally, I don't have a problem with the GST on fees as it is paid to the government.  If there was no GST on eBay fees the government would look elsewhere to make up the tax shortfall and ALL taxpayers would make up that amount sellers would not be paying.

Savvy sellers take fees into account when pricing their items and postage.  On your example, just charge $2.30 and all fees on postage will be recovered (13.4% x $2 = $0.27).

The way to make this work is that you put in your description something like:

Postage & Handling is $2.30 for posting through Australia Post.

DO NOT give a breakdown of the what you charge for p&h i.e. DO NOT mention that you are recovering your fees on postage.