Well that was weird. Went to buy an MP3 album from CD baby and they asked for country of residence for tax purposes. So I put in Aus and fair enough they tried to slug me an extra 10%? So is this it? Has the abominable New World Order finally caught up with me? Last time I checked our dodgy government had put their plan to collect GST from foreign companies on hold, did they ramp up their plans all of a sudden?
Foreign companies now collecting GST for the Aus government?
EightImmortals on 14/10/2017 - 18:43
Comments
It's weird to have it though.
At least with physical stores, they are using Australian Electricity, Advertising and hiring Locally…so the GST makes good sense.I remember a while ago, digital content like Graphics Designing Applications were several hundreds in USD, but charged several thousands in AUD.
GST is a consumption tax collected by the vendor on behalf of the Australian federal government — in theory it shouldn't matter where the vendor is as long as goods or services are consumed in Australia. It's just that foreign vendors have never bothered to collect that tax (or lack of incentive to do so) until recently.
You want overseas companies to have a tax advantage? The taxes pay for Government services for our citizens. What I think is abominable is multinational companies moving around their assets to avoid paying their rightful taxes for access to our market.
@try2bhelpful: They'll just put the prices up for aussies to pay for the tax, will make zero difference to the companies
@Quantumcat: level playing field for companies if they are offshore or onshore, let’s support local industries, or at least., not penalise them for providing Australian jobs.
@try2bhelpful: If it costs more than the tax is worth to implement, why bother? You're just costing regular people money to make work for public servants which does nothing to increase the public good. If you're going to have a tax, make sure there's an actual profit after it has been collected.
@Quantumcat: you could say the same for collecting tax for onshore stuff, but we do it. It is in the offshore guys interest to make if efficient. Given global banking don’t see why this should be hard set aside the money and transfer using the interchange systems.
@try2bhelpful: In Australia we have automatic methods for collecting tax. Trying to collect from overseas would be mainly a manual process
as i read it, companies with revenues over $75k have to register to pay GST
that obviously means the microsofts and amazons of the world have to pay but its overblown because it seems the gearbests and zapals of the world can tell scott morrison to get nicked
MS and Amazon wont pay…we will.
I wonder how the pipsqueak government will go trying to force it's demands on places like Aliexpress?If they stop the packages getting through customs then aliexpress will pay.
Found this on the ato website
https://www.ato.gov.au/General/New-legislation/In-detail/Ind…
"The Federal Parliament has passed law that will extend Goods and Services Tax (GST) to low value imports of physical goods imported by consumers from 1 July 2018."
Which relates to 'physical' goods.
Looks like Yippy has the correct answer though. Oh well.
That's next year though?
Next year for physical goods but apparantly it's already happening for digital products like MP3's. I sent a please explain to CD Baby so we'll see what they say.
It's a money grab by the government. It was referred to as Netflix Tax in the media do a search and you'll find plenty of articles on it.
Seriously, if these goods were being delivered onshore they would pay the tax so you want to penalise Australian businesses?
I don't really get the upset at paying GST on imports.
I think it is silly to collect it if it costs more (the reason why the $1000 threshold exists for physical imports) but if the government can get Netflix et al to charge it and collect it, I don't really see the problem.
If it means we go into less debt as a nation, good. If it shuts up Gerry Harvey, good.
The only issue I have is if they do some dumb collection process like in the UK or Canada where a $50 shirt gets held up while you go and pay the $5 GST, costing the government $10 to collect it and causing everyone inconvenience.
The approach of asking large companies to collect the tax on Aussie sales is fine, and how most countries operate. For example, if you buy stuff from Amazon in the USA, they will collect the appropriate state sales tax for your address. Same for cross border sales in the EU. It isn't rocket science.Small sellers won't have to collect it, the same way some little market stall crafter doesn't charge it here in the real world.
If your complaint is the GST is not a tax you like, then propose an alternative way to fund the government services, or propose which services you would like cut. If your suggestions are popular enough, I'm sure they will get adopted.
We pay WAY too much tax already, the national debt is not going down, it's going up (and I'm referring to government debt mostly even though private debt is way up as well, that's the individual's concern). On the other hand, government services are going down. Government debt burdens all of us and is the elephant in the room IMO. And now they are talking about pinching our superannuation as well.
Was thinking last night and wondering if I ticked the box for a different country would I still get hit up for GST?
But our government debt is going up because we don't pay particularly high taxes for a developed country, and we want all the services too. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_tax_rat…
I don't see how trying to avoid the taxes helps that problem.I agree. This reminds me of the gubment rant by redneck Americans. Do we really want to go down the American path? Give me universal healthcare and welfare safety nets. Go visit some American cities, they can be very depressing places.
No our government debt is going up due to bad management bordering on treason, gross incompetence and the bureaucratic nightmare. The government wastes around 60 Bn of our tax money each year on its interest payments alone. Legitimate GOVERNMENT is allowed to create our own currency and interest-free credit for running the country and providing infrastructure, like they did with the Nullabor railway and most of the Snowy scheme. Given that the whole setup these days is just a giant global ponzi scheme anyway why aren't people concerned about that 3BN or so per MONTH but whinge non-stop about a 120Million one-off cost for a plebiscite to determine the future direction of the country? And let's not get into corporate welfare, immigration welfare and politicians with their snouts in the trough. Let's not talk about the 1 million dollars the ADF just wasted on sex change operations for soldiers. I could go on for a very long time before running out of things to list about how the government mishandles the money it takes from those who earn it. Roads and hospitals are one thing and fair enough but our taxes would be way less if they only went to fund societies necessities.
Comparing our state of affairs to other countries is pointless as well. That's like saying my terminal cancer is better than your terminal cancer because mine hasn't been going as long. In the end we both end up dead if nothing gets done differently.
Trying to avoid taxes means you get to keep more of your money which you can then choose how to spend it and where it goes. The cash economy is the only thing keeping the wheels turning at the moment and once they shut that down it's game over.
I hope that rant got it off your chest. I agree the government wastes money but the answer is not to allow special groups to avoid tax but for the government to be more efficient. I am more concerned about the rabbit proof fence around Parliament House than the soldiers sex change operations, but we all have our hobby horses. My big one is this waste of space postal vote for same sex marriage. We are just such backward hicks sometimes.
If you have to suck up the 10 percent GST on you plastic piece of crap then put on your big boy pants and suck it up. The cash economy is not the answer, politicians being more accountable is.What 'special groups' did I advocate should avoid tax?
"The cash economy is not the answer, politicians being more accountable is."
And given that politicians (and others like them) will NEVER be accountable then I maintain that the individual should take care of themselves and their loved ones as a first priority. If government WERE more efficient and accountable we would not have such a high rate of taxation and government debt as it is. GST on foreign purchases is merely a desperate and unconscionable tax grab by a bunch of incompetent crooks. Hell, half of the stuff I buy online I can't even get locally so it's not like I'm depriving the poor 'ol gubmunt of the extra few bucks a month they need to stop the Titanic from sinking.
And no I don't expect statists to 'get it'.
Because you feel the government is inefficient in spending, rather than seek to improve it you will just stop paying tax wherever you can?
Get a bit of ticker.
Either seek a country with a tax system that accords with your personal self-centered view (Somalia?), or work to make this country better, but accept others will want a better community than your preference.Every time you claim the government is ripping you off, consider that the 'government' is every other person in this country, who has voted and contributed to build this country by collecting taxes to spend on the collective good. That you find tax high, but will hypocritically take all the benefits while participating and advocating to avoid it is a complete betrayal of your responsibility to the community that props you up to be able to benefit.
Your stated area of waste? $1m on defence health spending on gender surgery. Well done, you have cured the problem!
You are the worst sort of commentator, full of scorn and vitriol, but without a solution, but plenty of examples on how you are personally keen to make the problem worse if it advantages yourself as your 'protest'.
Is there any level of perfection in government where you wouldn't choose to benefit yourself given the choice? You state that other countries too, have governments comparable to cancer, so presumably none of the developed world.Go build your own hospital, road, security force, school, weather service, land title office, judicial system, sports bodies, prisons, train lines, passport office, ports, fire brigade, welfare system, environmental protection authority, ambulance service, building standards, prudential regulator, airports, power grid etc. and show us how to do it better.
Or sit and complain about the $1.50 in GST you paid to download a CD and let everyone else get on with running society for you.
@mskeggs: The irony of your post did not go unnoticed. It was almost as obvious as your wild assumptions and baseless (for the most part) accusations.
Sorry I dared to ask the question in the first place, next time I'll just bend over and pay up.
@EightImmortals: bend over boy and pay your fair share. Attack the spending rather than the equalisation of the collection between offshore and onshore. Support Australian jobs and services.
GST on digital products started in July 2017.