I can't concentrate too well at the moment so I may have missed something someone said, but if ebay collects the fees for relevant sales on their site, surely they could set up software that adds the gst to anything bought from any seller registered overseas (regardless of the location in the listing) and posted to an Australian address.

I could be wrong but I believe they're allowed to sell digital items on ebay US, which means they must have the means to add the relevant VAT on when European customers buy (and show the VAT inclusive price when they're browsing). If they've already got that set up it'd be easy enough to extend it to include other countries' taxation rules.

The EU was planning on extending the VAT on overseas purchases to physical items last year but I don't know whether that eventuated or not.

double post

Australian government  view online stores like real estate ( brick and mortor ) now

 

if you sell to that country and you are big enough you must pay tax for that country. ( well this one anyways , not sure on others that much)

 

Aust post said that if they had to collect GST on imported goods it would kill their business model

 

international comapnies that dont comply will be slugged with a 40% bill  not the going GST rate