Netflix tax

[stickerswa]

Just got an email from ebay...

From 1 July 2017, Goods and Services Tax (GST) will apply to fees on eBay.com.au, due to new legislation in Australia (the "Netflix Tax").

Businesses registered for GST will not be affected by this change if you register your Australian Business Number (ABN) with eBay here.

Anyone else feel a fee increase coming to cover this....

[davewil1964]

Sounds like other options are the go.

Provided you can find an online selling site that has a turnover less than $75k. That's turnover, not income. I doubt many viable sites would survive on that. Good luck

[lyndal1838]

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@collect.i wrote:

I know how GST works.

End of the day as a private seller, I'm paying 10% more on my fees. paying 10% fees + 10% GST doesn't make me feel any better than paying 11% fees.

I'm looking at other options. eBay have fleeced us enough.

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You should not be paying 10% more on your fees if you do what every savvy seller does....increase your prices to cover the extra GST.

Ebay is not fleecing you....the GST is an Australian Government tax.  Ebay is just collecting it to pass on to the ATO.

[digital*ghost]

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@collect.i wrote:

I know how GST works.

End of the day as a private seller, I'm paying 10% more on my fees. paying 10% fees + 10% GST doesn't make me feel any better than paying 11% fees.

I'm looking at other options. eBay have fleeced us enough.

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It's hardly eBay's doing - they fought against this (along with the vendor-collects model for physical goods that would also see them impose / collect GST on overseas goods), but didn't find much support from users, so backlash now is a bit too little, too late, not to mention misdirected. 

The gov wants to tax Aussies on overseas purchases, many OS governments want to do the same with their own citizens and imports. I think you'll be pretty hard pressed to find any seller, in any country, be they private or large corporation, willing to pay another person's tax for them, most people don't even like paying their own. 

[collect.i]

NOT missing the point at all. Because of eBay's high fees the GST is now a large impost.

If fees were 5% say, the GST would only be 0.5%. Would live with that.

Of course eBay would fight against this tax cause they know seller's pain threshold will now be breached!!!!

Can't believe people are sticking up for them. 

[digital*ghost]

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@collect.i wrote:

Can't believe people are sticking up for them. 

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You're going to have to explain that one to me like I'm 5, because clearly I'm the one who is missing some kind of point here. How is attempting to clarify that our government is taxing Australians and forcing eBay to do the collecting, suddenly equate to sticking up for eBay?  Your suggestion is that eBay basically lower their fees so that the GST doesn't have an impact - I'm sure all non-GST registered sellers would love that - would the GST-registered sellers benefit from that, too, since eBay won't have to collect the tax from them, or will it just be a "thanks for using eBay" gift for all the sellers who don't collect GST? 

Where do you draw the line? Which sites should pay their consumer's tax for them, and which one's shouldn't, or should paying GST be based on whether you personally find a particular site's fees acceptable or not? 

Should I be happier that I'll be paying GST on my fees on another site I sell, because they only charge 3.5% (I can tell you that I'm not, because due to all of their other fees, it's often more expensive for me to sell there than it is for me to sell the same items on eBay). 

Heaven help us when Amazon and their 20% FVF come here (GST not included). 

[bluebudgies]

I think their point is that ebay shareholders shouldn't expect a return on their investment but should all be philanthropists who buy the shares and then pay extra money to maintain the site so that it can allow everyone else to use the site to sell things without paying for the service, or only partly paying for it.

How many of the people who complain about ebay fees would be willing to pay out of their own pocket to set up a selling site and let everyone else it for less than it costs to run the site? Yet this is what they expect others to do for them!

I can live with ebay fees. Sure, I can't sell everything and get my money back because of the fees I have to pay when I sell, but that's my stupid fault for buying things and paying too much for them, or buying things I don't really need. I can't blame anyone else for that.

Apart from anything else, I get so many vouchers from ebay that sometimes I save more money than what my fees are on one of my ID's. I'd be stupid to complain when they're handing money back to me!

[cliffsearch]

I've just cancelled my Ebay Shop subscription. The over the top Ebay and Paypal fees is bad enough. This added fee makes a Ebay Shop unsustainable. You would think Ebay would be reasonable and have low fees. But hell no! I suspect that tens of thousands of Aussie Ebay sellers will do the same.

[lyndal1838]

I am surprised that it took a small fee like the GST to galvanise you into closing your Store.

It is a well know fact that a Store is not really viable with less than 100 listings and you have a very low sell through rate.

It should not have taken the GST to make you realise that the Store had to go.

[*tippy*toes*]

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@cliffsearch wrote:
I've just cancelled my Ebay Shop subscription. The over the top Ebay and Paypal fees is bad enough. This added fee makes a Ebay Shop unsustainable. You would think Ebay would be reasonable and have low fees. But hell no! I suspect that tens of thousands of Aussie Ebay sellers will do the same.

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I doubt it. A lot of Aussie eBay sellers already pay GST as business sellers. Me, I don't have a store. If I want the buyer to cover the GST on fees, I reckon I need to add around 10c per listing. Even that is probably overkill. If I decide to absorb it myself, it's not going to break me. I could probably pull a years worth of 10c from in the lounge.

Spoiler

Pssst, you still have a store door next to your name.

[rc250668]

hi all i have spoken to ebay regarding thius tax if you have an abn then you need to update your account with it.
however if you a private seller like me and you are an australian seller then we will pay 10% of the commision/fees that ebay charge us a monthly basis and this cant be claimed back.
so if you have a monthly bill of say $500 for ebay commissions then you will pay an additional $50 in gst/tax that is not claimable or another way to look at it is if you allow 11% of your ebay fees from tomorrow 1st july it should be abot the same end charge.
you do not pay an additional 10% of the sale price of the goods
this is what i a
have been told and i have also asked if ebay can make it clear to all regarding this.
if you are an overseas seller then you will be charged 10% as i understand it.
the netfix tax name is due to foxtel challenging netlix to make the local and overseas companies on the same playing field !
regards

rob