Australian GST to be collected by international sellers from July 1st 2018

[50s]

To comply with Australian law, overseas sellers will need to collect $10 GST for the Australian Government on purchases if the goods are shipped to Australia.

I wonder what EMP, MPB etc will do.

Amazon international sites will be geo blocking Australians from July 1st to an Amazon Australia store with, by the sounds of it, less than 1% of the international offerings.

Re Amazon, to get around this Australians need to get a VPN to bypass the geo blocking and also have goods shipped somewhere not Australia and get them sent on by some other means (like a freight forwarding company)

eBay will apply the tax, collecting it for the Australian Government

[Crazy Vick]

Stev-o!

Assume you mean 10% not $10?  Ebay canada started collecting GST taxes last july for the canadian government as well.  I don't sell a lot of stuff on ebay but it does make me feel better that I am not declaring on my income taxes since I am already paying takes.

 Glad the aussies finding ways to stick it to amazon.  For EMP customers whatever cost I imagine will be charged through customs so inevitably the buyer will need to pay at the door and not Bruce.

[50s]

Yeah, sorry 10% GST. But no, customs only collect if the package is valued over $1000. For goods under $1000, the Australian Government expects overseas online sellers to collect GST for the Australian Government.


https://www.vogue.com.au/fashion/news/online-shopping-in-australia-is-about-to-become-more-expensive/news-story/cf0d64aed6cda6734e50a80157af3ba6


https://www.finder.com.au/australian-gst-changes-2017

[Stefano]

Sounds like the Australian customer is meant to pay the 10% GST, and the "business" (be it Amazon or eBay) is to forward that tax back to the Aussie gov't.  So why doesn't Amazon just automatically add that tax for Australian customers rather than just block them all?  Are they just to lazy to write some code to set this up automatically? 

Small businesses/sellers receiving less than $75K from Australian customers apparently will not be affected. 

[50s]

Yea, that sounds right.

But with Bruce selling something like $3million per year, if my maths is right, earning 3% of income from Australians  would mean EMP is required to register the business for Australian GST, thus collect 10% GST for the Australian government from all sales to Australians

https://www.ato.gov.au/business/international-tax-for-business/gst-on-low-value-imported-goods/registration/

[MoviePosterBid.com]

Rick Bayne said to me it was $5 per package, regardless of value

what will I do? Has nothing to do with me, it has to do with buyers, who will now have to pay to get their deliveries. I expect it will reduce sales to Australia

[50s]

It was going to be a fixed price ($10) per package, but ended up 10% GST.

If such businesses don't want to sell to Australians to avoid collecting the GST, yes, Australians will have to have the seller ship to another country and then arrange on delivery to  Australia

[MoviePosterBid.com]

If such businesses don't want to sell to Australians to avoid collecting the GST, yes, Australians will have to have the seller ship to another country and then arrange on delivery to  Australia

I'll sell to anywhere, but buyers will stop bidding or buying.
however, if Australia demands that I collect & remit this money, my business to Australia will end pretty quick

[Stefano]

I'll sell to anywhere, but buyers will stop bidding or buying.
however, if Australia demands that I collect & remit this money, my business to Australia will end pretty quick

It's going to be really tough for the Australian government to enforce this outside their own country, especially for small, privately held U.S. businesses.  I have a feeling this is going to largely be one of those regulations "in name only." 

But if American business owners want to be "above-board" and comply with Aussie gov't regulations, I wouldn't assume that collecting a GST will necessarily put off most Australian collectors.  Times are tough in the U.S., and a 10% tax might break the bank for a lot of people in the states (I can say that, because I live in the states).  But from what I've been reading recently, the Australian economy is going strong, with a quite high standard of living.  Perhaps an Australian could give their impression on the general economic landscape over there.  Is a 10% increase likely to be turn significant numbers of Australian buyers away from U.S. auctions?