eBay issuing incorrect seller monthly invoices, GST on postage not stated

[im_excited!!]

This effects sellers who are GST registered and buying postage using eBay labels. The eBay seller monthly invoices are not correct.

GST is being charged on postage for GST exempt sellers - and not stated GST is inclusive. eBay started billing seller fees GST from the 1/07/2018.

eBay postage is itemised on invoice as "Shipping fees disbursed".

If you have an ABN and are GST registered you can provide your ABN to eBay and you will be exempt from GST on seller fees.

However, the GST is still charged on eBay postage. eBay needs to remove GST from the shipping fees disbursed or explicity state that this item includes GST. This is necessary so sellers can claim GST on their BAS returns.

On an item's print postage page underneath price in small print it states "All prices quoted are inclusive of GST." It is also stated postage charged is GST inclusive on the help page here: https://sellercentre.ebay.com.au/ebay-for-business/ebay-postage-labels. eBay chat support were unaware of this and required screenshots.

I have contacted eBay support three times and they are completely confused on the issue. They have told me to contact Australia Post even though eBay is the biller. I asked them to forward my inquiry to their experts. They have not replied to my last two emails. I am not hopeful of getting an adequate response from eBay, but maybe one of the the moderaters for this board will take note.

I will next contact Australia Post and report eBay's issuance of incorrect tax invoices to the Australian Tax Office.

[im_excited!!]

The problem is the charges are aggregated and billed as such.

Let me be clear - I will be claiming GST credits for postage paid to eBay whether they fix their invoices or not, as I can support the claim with evidence to the ATO that eBay is billing sellers GST but not issuing correct invoices.

However, wouldn't it be nice if a multi-billion dollar company would just issue correct tax compliant invoices?! I'm a one-man company and I manage.

[djavusydney]

Finally someone bring this issue. Postage from eBay should have GST in it, but the way we do not pay GST on exempt account, this GST credit is not claimable. I avoid using eBay postage for this reason. Standard post charges via eParcel could even cheaper as GST claimable. Do you notice another issue? If you sign up for eBay plus theey will refer the tax invoice back to selling account even it's actually paid separately. I'm still awaiting the tax invoice for the subscription.

[im_excited!!]

I submitted a report to the ATO today. They have already replied and are looking into the issues raised. This is a big deal - eBay may have to reissue invoices going back several years for tens of thousands of Australian sellers and hundreds of thousands of invoices.

[im_excited!!]

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@djavusydney wrote:
Finally someone bring this issue. Postage from eBay should have GST in it, but the way we do not pay GST on exempt account, this GST credit is not claimable. I avoid using eBay postage for this reason. Standard post charges via eParcel could even cheaper as GST claimable. Do you notice another issue? If you sign up for eBay plus theey will refer the tax invoice back to selling account even it's actually paid separately. I'm still awaiting the tax invoice for the subscription.

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Yes, I stopped using eBay postage because of the GST issue as well. I use Australia Post MyPost Business which has similar fixed price satchels - and they provide proper tax invoices! https://auspost.com.au/mypost-business

[cng_surplus]

Is it worth remivng the ABN from the eBay store all together to be able to claim the GST as it is then shown on the invoice?

Or does the postage still show as "total non taxable amount"

[im_excited!!]

I haven't tried, but I don't think that would make a difference.

[johnoshop]

Did this get resolved? I know you used to be able to get a Tax Invoice for each postage label (not available immediately, had to wait until it was all processed, maybe after the item was delivered). But now with the new eBay managed payment system I can't find anywhere that shows that postage labels include GST, and Tax Invoices for Postage Labels don't seem available anymore.

[beanonline24*]

Wouldn't mind knowing the same thing. I have tried enquiring with ebay as to why their monthy tax invoices do not show the GST amount included in the aggregated post charge, but they conveniently don;'t understand what I'm asking. As ebay is an offshore entity, I wonder whether Auspost and Ebay have concocted a nice little deal to make the GST on postage labels disappear, to the detriment of the ebay seller.

[im_excited!!]

I stopped using eBay postage, I'm not aware the problem was resolved.

As I said above:

I will be claiming GST credits for postage paid to eBay whether they fix their invoices or not, as I can support the claim with evidence to the ATO that eBay is billing sellers GST but not issuing correct invoices.

[johnoshop]

I realized it is even more confusing than when I previously replied. I just noticed on Invoice reports (Seller Hub | Reports | eBay), in reports up to about April this year were a different format to the current ones. In those earlier ones the detailed invoices have a note under "Supplemental service fees disbursed", at the end of the section, saying "** Price inclusive of GST". When I used Australia Post those fees don't have the "**" next to them, but other services like Sendle do have "**" next to them. However in current invoices, the detailed format is just a CSV download, and doesn't have any notes about "Price inclusive of GST", and the summary PDF also doesn't have that for any supplemental service shipping fees. So at one time their invoices seemed to say that non-AustPost shipping service fees included GST, but now there is nothing about that for any services...