Australia/New Zealand Australian internet buyers face GST+ on all purchases from July 1

lynnb

lynnb

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I'd read about this proposal but it's due to become law from July 1. From July 1, all Australian internet purchases will be liable for 10% GST. Until this date, only purchases over AUD$1000 are liable.

However as this article explains, purchases over AUD$1000 can have an effective tax rate of 25% once Customs and other fees are included.

The 10% GST on purchases will be collected by sellers and paid to the Australian govt. According to the article, some sellers are considering not allowing sales to Australian customers due to the cost and inconvenience of managing GST payments.

This is particularly bad news for us Aussies who find local film prices extortionate, apart from a few suppliers like BlancoNegro in Sydney (who sell Foma film and chemistry).
 
We've had that here in New Zealand since late last year....and our GST rate is 12.5%. So far all it's affected for me is subscriptions for genealogy sites with Australian addresses. Genealogy credits from Scotland's People weren't affected, and I just checked B&H, and an order there doesn't have a sales tax component.
 
I see the biggest downer as overseas suppliers not bothering with us because of the paper work involved. The fact that our government has dumped the responsibility of the tax being collected and submitted firmly on the seller is not entirely surprising ... life goes on!

edit ... and I meant to add: describing that bunch of over paid miscreants in Canberra who seem to to think they are running this country as 'The Government' ... wasn't my idea! 🙄
 
Personally i have no problem paying GST on my purchases. The extortionate prices paid for a lot of goods in Australia, local or imported, are not due to just the GST component.
Like Lynn's linked SMH author's experience, I also paid more than 10% extra when I bought things worth more than AUD 1000 via the net, because there are other customs charges. I don't think I paid as much as 25% though. If the GST is collected by the seller then perhaps we won't be slugged the customs charges.
On the other hand, if international sellers start refusing to sell to Australia because of having to collect tax, then that's going to dampen a lot of our fun, and price competition in Australia is going to be weakened.
 
Actually, I read another article on this business http://www.smh.com.au/business/retail/ebay-threatens-to-block-australian-shoppers-over-gst-20170417-gvmkoe.html, and because the "new" rule will be applied to sub $1000 purchases only, and greater value purchases will have GST collected in the old way (at customs, after notification by the carriage service), then we are still up for more than 10% tax for expensive items because of customs' egregious handling fees.
Sorry, cant get the link to work. Someone will have to give me a lesson.


ADMIN
you incorrectly had http://www.rangefinderforum.com/forums/ in the URL
took it out, now the link works
 
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Bottom line is that this change is being driven by the large retailers who aren't prepared to compete with the internet suppliers. It won't raise anymore revenue, it will just mean that overseas sellers will refuse Australian orders rather than be tax collectors for our government. I can't say I blame them given the paperwork involved. Sensible small businesses have learned how to be competitive, my local bike shop will actually help customers order parts on the net and then charges for the labour to put them together. Another shop I know uses a well known mail order business as his benchmark and will not sell anything at a price higher than listed there. It's all l down to Gerry Harvey and his kind, I'll boycot them but I don't think they'll notice the difference 🙂.

cheers,
clay
 
Very frustrating if the end result is that overseas sellers just black-list Australian buyers. I have a few hobbies where a lot of the gear simply can't be purchased in Aus...
 
How can the actions of overseas sellers be controlled by the Australian government? They can easily decline to collect the GST, seems to me. And then it would be up to the honest buyer to fork over the appropriate amount, yes? Collecting it upon arrival at Customs seems more workable in practice...

We are starting to see more US online vendors collecting state sales taxes on out-of-state online purchases. This will be a huge bonanza for the state coffers... They have been losing tax revenues as local retail store traffic declines in favor of online sales. So far, we have been supposed to calculate the appropriate taxes ourselves and report that annually on our federal income tax forms... though it's not well enforced.
 
I wouldn't find it so annoying if the changes only applied to new items. There are relatively few specialist sellers of classic and collectible camera equipment in Australia even if some stores sell a few items. But as overseas camera equipment has not been used in Australia previously it will still be subject to the 10% GST when purchased online, whether it is new or not. It may hit sales to Australia from KEH. Other sellers who do not make in excess of $75,000 sales to Australia per annum as I understand it will remain exempt from any requirement to collect the tax. Meaning that providing the overall $1000 threshhold is not exceeded good purchased directly from these private sellers, or from such businesses that do not exceed the $75,000 pa test should be able to continue to be entered through customs under the long-standing exemption in Schedule 4 of the Customs Tariff Act. At least that is my reading of it, after a short look at the explanatory memorandum. In short, the RFF classifieds have never looked better.
 
Doug said:
How can the actions of overseas sellers be controlled by the Australian government? They can easily decline to collect the GST, seems to me. And then it would be up to the honest buyer to fork over the appropriate amount, yes? Collecting it upon arrival at Customs seems more workable in practice...

We are starting to see more US online vendors collecting state sales taxes on out-of-state online purchases. This will be a huge bonanza for the state coffers... They have been losing tax revenues as local retail store traffic declines in favor of online sales. So far, we have been supposed to calculate the appropriate taxes ourselves and report that annually on our federal income tax forms... though it's not well enforced.
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They're not, in the sense that (at the heart of the issue) they do not have to sell to Australian customers if they do not want to. But I suspect the operation of the proposed legislation (assuming it will pass the Senate, the government's record of success with its legislation in the upper house is less than scintillating) would be that the items would be prohibited imports if the tax has not been collected and refused entry, or (as you intimated) the customer would be required to pay up to secure possession of the goods. As I suspect this would then entail a formal entry through customs with the associated fees and paperwork this wouls be a turn off to say the least, particularly if it involved items of negligible value.

The reason this scheme was proposed in the first place, Doug is because whenever measures to address the so-called tax leakage from offshore purchases has been mooted, figures presented by (I think, Treasury) suggested the costs of collection would substantially exceed the value of any additional tax revenue obtained. Hence, the idea of handballing the government's job of collecting its own tax on to the sellers. 🙁

The news on Australian television tonight suggests eBay, Amazon, and others are spitting the dummy and threatening to pull out. Perhaps there is still a glimmer of hope? We shall see.
Cheers,
Brett
 
Sarcophilus Harrisii said:
They're not, in the sense that (at the heart of the issue) they do not have to sell to Australian customers if they do not want to. But I suspect the operation of the proposed legislation (assuming it will pass the Senate, the government's record of success with its legislation in the upper house is less than scintillating) would be that the items would be prohibited imports if the tax has not been collected and refused entry, or (as you intimated) the customer would be required to pay up to secure possession of the goods. As I suspect this would then entail a formal entry through customs with the associated fees and paperwork this wouls be a turn off to say the least, particularly if it involved items of negligible value.

The reason this scheme was proposed in the first place, Doug is because whenever measures to address the so-called tax leakage from offshore purchases has been mooted, figures presented by (I think, Treasury) suggested the costs of collection would substantially exceed the value of any additional tax revenue obtained. Hence, the idea of handballing the government's job of collecting its own tax on to the sellers. 🙁

The news on Australian television tonight suggests eBay, Amazon, and others are spitting the dummy and threatening to pull out. Perhaps there is still a glimmer of hope? We shall see.
Cheers,
Brett
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I heard some economist being interviewed last night on the radio and his opinion was that Amazon, ebay etc will posture about this but ultimately that's all it is. Australia is a lucrative market with plenty of disposable income available and they won't walk away from it because of this. As you say though ... the whole piece of legislation may not pass muster.
 
I will sell to Australia. I will collect tax for said country...22% of product cost to said country for collection of tax revenue. 10% after tax rebate to customer. I refuse to work for free. Especially such a dirty job like tax collection.
 
Contarama said:
I will sell to Australia. I will collect tax for said country...22% of product cost to said country for collection of tax revenue. 10% after tax rebate to customer. I refuse to work for free. Especially such a dirty job like tax collection.
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I suspect this is what will happen ... and I agree. Why should you collect taxes for this misguided Australian government for nothing.
 
How could they hold a US Citizen like myself responsible for such a tax? If it is the sellers responsibility?

It wont affect my selling to AU... they can collect the GST from my ass in person.

I might be confused... can anyone educate me!
 
B-9 said:
How could they hold a US Citizen like myself responsible for such a tax? If it is the sellers responsibility?

It wont affect my selling to AU... they can collect the GST from my ass in person.

I might be confused... can anyone educate me!
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The problem is that if you do send someone here in Oz something and don't follow through the customs will intercept the goods and then the buyer will have to jump through all sorts of hoops and charges to get their item/items. I've had to go through this once because some fool in the US sent me a battered M3 years ago and placed what he thought was it's value on the form which was a really stupid thing to do ... it took me two weeks to get my camera and cost me nearly another two hundred dollars in fees.

If this goes through parliament and becomes law in a very short space of time the customs people will be knee deep in stuff that people can't be bothered collecting because they don't want the bother.
 
What if the biggies, amazon, alibaba, etc are in cahoots with Oz govt? Everyone getting a little piece of the pie. I can see politicians and international corporations pulling some bs like that. Then they'd give themselves raises and bonuses for being so clever.
 
Keith said:
I see the biggest downer as overseas suppliers not bothering with us because of the paper work involved. The fact that our government has dumped the responsibility of the tax being collected and submitted firmly on the seller is not entirely surprising ... life goes on!

edit ... and I meant to add: describing that bunch of over paid miscreants in Canberra who seem to to think they are running this country as 'The Government' ... wasn't my idea! 🙄
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This what every photographer (or consumer) has to put up with. 'Miscreants' is an excellent word for politician.
 
Maybe a very large purchase (club or group) directly from a distributor might gain a big enough discount to offset the tax? If the purchase is a large single buy, the vendor won't mind the paper work. Buy your film once or twice a year in this way. Just a thought.

I guess we might see film smuggling.. like cigarettes.
 
PKR said:
Maybe a very large purchase (club or group) directly from a distributor might gain a big enough discount to offset the tax? If the purchase is a large single buy, the vendor won't mind the paper work. Buy your film once or twice a year in this way. Just a thought.

I guess we might see film smuggling.. like cigarettes.
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'Film smuggler' ... I like the way you think and I have now seen a glimpse of my new future as an international man of mystery! 😀
 
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