New parcel tax coming

[stickerswa]

Just read this ..

"Aussie shoppers may soon have to pay a $5 tax on every parcel posted from overseas under a federal government plan to cover skyrocketing security screening costs."

It wont affect me as I dont buy from OS but I am sure this will affect a lot of people. Could be a good thing - might make folks stop (or slow down) purching from China and make local stuff more appealing.

I can see down sides too but for ebay sellers at least it could be a good thing .  

Thoughts !  

[digital*ghost]

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@everard6920wrote:

This idea was a mess last year, and it's a mess this year. That's why it was pushed back a year.

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And by creating a 12 month reprieve on GST, they gave Aussie shoppers a countdown (real or not) for GST-free overseas shopping. 

In the article I read, they blamed a large surge in small packages being imported from overseas over the last year for the increasing costs of security screening processes, and of course they conclude this is only set to increase, because... trends?

It couldn't possibly be a situation of the government's creation, the 'get it while you can', thing. 

-_-

[everard6920]

How will it work with eBay?

What are overseas sellers with free postage going to do?

"FREE INTERNATIONAL POSTAGE****

**** Except for Australians. For Australians, 10% of a postage-amount-I-won't-disclose + $5.00"

No.

They're just going to block us.

What about sellers who misrepresent their location? You buy from someone, thinking they're in Australia and that you don't need to pay the tax or the $5.00. And then SURPRISE I'm not in Darwin, I'm in Shanghai and you have to pay.

[imastawka]

They're saying between $2 and $7 per parcel

I dont know how they'll work it out, but they will

https://www.msn.com/en-au/money/personalfinance/online-shopping-tax-of-up-to-dollar7-per-package-for...

[outback_blends]

Not sure how they will police it. Will the sender have to pay their end or will it be payable before pick up. One good thing - I doubt ebay will be involved in the fee collection ... but you can bet they will work out a way to claim a fee on it! 

[everard6920]

Does anyone else recall that $9 security fee from about 10 years ago for packages going to the U.S.? It was only around for about a year, and was for packages over 500g or something like that.

The U.S. government charged Qantas and AP, so Qantas and AP charged the fee.

I remember having to modify all my listings to say that U.S. customers would be charged an extra $9, and I copped so much abuse for it via eBay messages.

[everard6920]

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@outback_blendswrote:

Not sure how they will police it. Will the sender have to pay their end or will it be payable before pick up. One good thing - I doubt ebay will be involved in the fee collection ... but you can bet they will work out a way to claim a fee on it! 

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They have to be involved in the GST collection, because I understand from reading the legislation, they are the "supplier" and are liable for it, rather than individual sellers.

In other words, if someone runs off without paying their fees including the 10% of Australian sales, they still have to pay the ATO.

Also going to make buying off eBay more appealing for buyers, because they have to pay the 10% on here but they may not have to on the individual seller's website, if that individual seller's turnover is less than $75,000.

[springyzone]

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@stickerswawrote:

Just read this ..

"Aussie shoppers may soon have to pay a $5 tax on every parcel posted from overseas under a federal government plan to cover skyrocketing security screening costs."

.  

Thoughts !  

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If anyone watches the border patrol shows, they may have seen one last week where a Chinese woman (with Australian citizenship) tried to bring in a whole suitcase or two of prohibited foodstuffs. Not only seeds but odd body parts etc.

This is rife on such shows as obviously some of the Asian foodstuffs are not common here so they try to sneak them in and we're not talking a small amount, I mean a whole suitcase or more's worth.

Not only was the woman not sorry, she lost her temper, abused staff and demanded they pay for opening her luggage and wasting her time.

Fine? A paltry $345 I think & that seems to be the standard amount.

How about for really flagrant offenders like this they up the fine-to $2000 min. One or two items I can put down to mistake, but not 2 suitcases worth.

If they upped the fines on these people, maybe they would not need a new tax.

[Anonymous]

It's a great idea if it can 'catch on'.

If AusPost ( being an Australian government department ) can collect money on goods

coming from overseas it will set up a 'mechanism' for collecting money.

This mechanism can then be duplicated and tweaked to include the GST collection on incoming goods.

Even Blind Freddy could read the declared value on a customs declaration and one of

his cousins could check a few for underdeclaration and pass them on for a raft of fines.

Once both mechanisms will then take can of 'bulk' deliveries as mentioned by the Ghost.

[Anonymous]

D'OH !!

Once in place, both mechanisms will then take care of 'bulk' deliveries as mentioned by the Ghost.

[everard6920]

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@Anonymouswrote:

It's a great idea if it can 'catch on'.

If AusPost ( being an Australian government department ) can collect money on goods

coming from overseas it will set up a 'mechanism' for collecting money.

This mechanism can then be duplicated and tweaked to include the GST collection on incoming goods.

Even Blind Freddy could read the declared value on a customs declaration and one of

his cousins could check a few for underdeclaration and pass them on for a raft of fines.

Once both mechanisms will then take can of 'bulk' deliveries as mentioned by the Ghost.

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I don't think AP will collect it. They did a feasibility study last year and found that the cost of collection would outweigh the revenue. As per the legislation, the overseas vendor collects the GST.

As discussed last year ad nauseum, this proposal is sketchy, because you cannot force an overseas vendor to release their business details to our government (to determine if they turn over more than $75,000, and are eligible to have to collect it), and ultimately, you can't force them to collect the GST and remit it to our government.

Despite the legislation passing in January, there are still no details on HOW they're going to make overseas vendors collect tax for our government and remit it, and what happens if they don't. Do you not receive your package? Do you pay a penalty to receive it? Do they block that vendor from selling into Australia (and essentially censor our internet)?

Is it just based on all overseas vendors being transparent and honest? Because that's a ridiculous expectation.

I mean, many people in Australia are still unaware of this legislation, so I can imagine that the majority of overseas vendors have no idea. Yet the ATO site says they should "take steps to prepare" for it by July 2018. Yes, because overseas vendors regularly check the Australian Taxation website. How will they even find out about this? And even if they do, why do they care? Do you, as an Australian seller, regularly check overseas tax websites, including those in other languages?

What is the Australian government realistically going to do if some seller in China either charges it and refuses to remit it, or doesn't charge it and doesn't remit it? Times that by the millions of sellers worldwide. As I said, they're yet to explain, and there's only a few months until this comes into effect.

I don't know about the $5.00 because no other details have been released, and Malcolm was on the news last night saying we shouldn't believe everything we read in major publications (however, he's likely to change his mind by next week). An e-commerce expert also stated that this isn't necessarily good for Australian exports, because other countries may retaliate and charge us such a fee to send packages to them.