Charging GST on low value imported goods into Australia

[chriss2804]

Hello.

Why does Ebay charge Australian GST on low value, international, private seller to private buyer goods imported into Australia?

GST is not payable on second hand private sales/purchases within Australia, and I cannot find any reference to the requirement to charge GST on private imports.

Is Ebay acting inappropriately, or even illegally?

If there is an ATO ruling, can you provide the specific reference. A general reference to the ATO webiste is insufficient due to the ambiguity and complexity of the Tax Act and Regulations.

Thanks!

[gutterpunkz05]

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@chriss2804 wrote:
Thanks enigmabear..
I have found the answer and it shiws an anomaly between national and international purchases which disadvantages the purchaser. Ie tax is paid when ut should not be.
Its also shown how several earlier respondees regard asking a question about an unknown previous thread as being a criminal act. Its disappointing that they take this view instead of understanding that new forum usets may not know about earlier threads or indeed who they are communicating with on the forum.
Also the interesting thing is that other respondees answer were technically deficient.
Thanks again for you help.

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Dont know where the Countess post went to, seeing as it gave you all you needed to know, very comprehensive, but far too generous

Countess, I keep saying people have to make some effort themselves, even if it is just reading existing threads

If read and understood, then you now know how to import low value goods without paying GST

[countessalmirena]

Aaagh!

Where did my post go?

It contained nothing obscene, offensive, unkind, untrue, or against policy...

Is there a black hole nearby?

(At least you saw it, gutterpunkz, so that I don't feel I've gone completely mad and dreamed that I posted a thorough compendium of everything the OP ever wanted to know about the GST on low-value imported goods.   And yes, I acknowledge that the OP could have found the information; however, some people find it more difficullt to sort out such information. It was also interesting to note that the ATO's information pages have been updated yet again - possibly as the result of being bombarded with eBay buyers asking curly questions.)

[davewil1964]

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@chriss2804 wrote:
Thanks enigmabear..
I have found the answer and it shiws an anomaly between national and international purchases which disadvantages the purchaser. Ie tax is paid when ut should not be.
Its also shown how several earlier respondees regard asking a question about an unknown previous thread as being a criminal act. Its disappointing that they take this view instead of understanding that new forum usets may not know about earlier threads or indeed who they are communicating with on the forum.
Also the interesting thing is that other respondees answer were technically deficient.
Thanks again for you help.

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Apart from this not being a technical issue, I just did a board search for 'GST on imports". I got TWENTY threads, so not exactly obscure or hard to find. Surely it's not hard to see if there's anything current before starting yet another thread....

[chriss2804]

No. As a new person to this board i had no idea how to search it for previous posts. im using my phone which is not search friendly. its easy if you know how. i didn't.

[lyndal1838]

You are not going mad Countess.....I saw your post too.

I would be asking one of the Mods why it was removed.....it was a very comprehensive round up of everything the OP could ever want to know about the GST.

If the Mods are going to rmove answers from the usual responders here they need to tell us why or we are just wasting our time being here.

[chriss2804]

i disagree. international sellers are not going to list something new as used just in case a tax is to be paid by the buyer. they have to list something correctly for auction. thus its new or used status is reasonably correctly established. there is a definite blanket approach to make life easy for tax collection.

[chriss2804]

and in addition i wasnt sure which category was best so i chose technical. the ATO would regard this az a technical question. but is clearly not engineering technical.

[gutterpunkz05]

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@chriss2804 wrote:
i disagree. international sellers are not going to list something new as used just in case a tax is to be paid by the buyer. they have to list something correctly for auction. thus its new or used status is reasonably correctly established. there is a definite blanket approach to make life easy for tax collection.

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You obviously dont do much international trade.  Every second buyer wants items either sent as gifts, or fudge the purchase price

to reduce or eliminate their import costs.  And wher would  New/Unused items sit.

[brerrabbit585]

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@chriss2804 wrote:
No. As a new person to this board i had no idea how to search it for previous posts. im using my phone which is not search friendly. its easy if you know how. i didn't.

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The ebay help pages are always a good place to start.  All the information I found when I started that other thread a few months ago was found via ebay's help section on paying GST on imports.

If you wondered why people initially answered you the way you did, it's because of the negative connotations in what you said, and the fact that dozens (if not hundreds) of other people have asked much the same questions, almost always with the assumption or assertion that ebay had no right to collect GST and from an aggressive stance.  Your post sounded very much as though you assumed the same thing as you focused on the negative side rather than the positive, ie. "is this inappropriate or illegal", rather than "is this appropriate or legal?"

[countessalmirena · Accepted solution]

@chriss2804, the question of whether eBay's collecting GST on your international purchases is legal or not isn't a technical question, but is probably best posted in the Buying board.

Technical questions relate more to how the eBay site is working (or not working), asking how to get around a technical glitch (such as inability to log in, pages not loading, payment error codes coming up, etc.

Anyway, as my previous post has vanished (and thank you, lyndal, for being the second "witness" who saw it!), your specific questions are addressed in this post in the Buying board. Read this post for the link to the ATO's summary page for low value imported goods GST. Read this post and this post for excerpts from eBay's User Agreement referencing the GST for low value imported goods. See here for the post linking to and addressing the Law Companion Ruling LCR 2018/1 (GST on low value imported goods). And finally... direct link to Treasury Laws Amendment (GST Low Value Goods) Act 2017.