Taxes ATO when business is outside Australia

[ljaso14]

Hi all,

I live in Melbourne and have a brother who lives in Vietnam atm. My brother wants to create a business in Australia (via ebay) selling leather watch bands/straps which are handmade in Vietnam.

My question is that if everything is setup in Vietnam, the bank account is openned in Vietnam, my brother is just shipping the products to australia and I'm doing the posting job here to the customers, all the money transactions are going straight to my brother's bank account (or paypal) in Vietnam, then do we have to worry about taxes and stuffs with the ATO?

Thanks all.

Jason

[typhoon4u]

My personal opinion is "It's nothing to do with the Aust ATO".

If you asked the ATO, I'm sure they could find some reason to tax you.......

[padi*0409]

Regarding the tax side of it you really need to talk to an accountant or the ATO.

BUT and it's a big but, importing hand-made leather straps is probably a customs and quarantine problem, so it will more than likely be nearly impossible to do.

Here's a couple of links for you to look through.

http://www.australia.gov.au/information-and-services/passports-and-travel/customs-and-quarantine

http://www.agriculture.gov.au/import

[padi*0409]

Just to add, if you try to import the straps and quarantine find them and decide they are not permitted into Australia, the goods will be confiscated and you could face a substantial fine, do it again and you could face fines of tens of thousands of dollars and/or jail

So make sure you know exactly what you're doing if you try this importation.

[davidc4430]

if everything is based in vietnam and your brother is just selling on australia ebay how does that make it an australian business?

if you mean hes opening an australia ebay account to sell then i doubt it matters where his bank is located. he will if his sales go high enough be needing to pay tax in australia.

i agree with other posters, he could run foul of customs for importing animal products without licence to do so which is much bigger worry.

australia has very tough import laws regarding these types of imports, be very carful not to poke a wasp nest.

[ljaso14]

Thanks guys,

I'll look into importing animal skin products in Australia. You guys have saved me from a big fine.