Hi all,
As per subject line, does anyone know how the GST will be collected? Do we pay Customs? Do we pay it before collecting or upon collection? How does it work?
I'm aware that goods over $1000 already pay the GST. If anyone has experience with this, I would be interested to know the current process.
For some reason morons keep voting for Liberal and Labour despite them both clearly existing to screw the population so business profits.
For some reason you keep repeating this but offer no alternatives. Unfortunately many people are unaware real alternatives exist. For the sake of enlightening others, please suggest your favourite.
Good luck
feel like going back to third-world country and parcel got stolen when this GST collection started
https://www.ato.gov.au/General/New-legislation/In-detail/Ind…
The Productivity Commission report into Collection Models for GST on Low Value Imported Goods
External Link publicly released 9 November 2017http://www.pc.gov.au/inquiries/completed/collection-models/r…
Legislation has been passed that will collect GST on low value imported goods from 1 July 2018. The legislation uses a vendor collection model, whereby vendors (including suppliers and online marketplaces) will collect the GST on low value imported goods at the time of sale.
Due to the 'Netflix tax', I had to pay GST when I purchased a guild wars 2 expansion (shoulda went through green man gaming).
edit: see old posts regarding people who >$1000 threshold https://www.ozbargain.com.au/node/370041
The legislation uses a vendor collection model, whereby vendors (including suppliers and online marketplaces) will collect the GST on low value imported goods at the time of sale.
I really wonder whether many vendors have actually signed up. The government is mostly relying on voluntary co-operation from foreign vendors to do their dirty work collecting taxes. It is extra work and there's nothing in it for them. If anything, where a vendor does voluntarily comply, it might even put them at a disadvantage compared to other vendors (who refuse to comply) because of the price difference.
This. If given the choice I will shop around to find a vendor that refuses to bow to these petty tax thieves. When it suits them we are 'a global economy' and then when they want to rip us off even more we are slugged for extra charges that the rest of the 'global economy' doesn't have to pay.
But what if the government gives them some kind of sticker to put on their packages and without the "tax paid" sticker your package gets inspected, taxed and held up for 6 weeks at customs… Then you might shop with someone who does pay.
Hopefully they do nothing like this and just focus on big companies though.
@stirlo: Wouldn't put it past them, spend a million dollars on stickers to collect $1000 worth of tax. Look up the word 'Kakistocracy', and might as well look up "Kleptocracy" while you're at it. :)
Agreed, but my thoughts is they don't really care so much, truth be told for the most part its probably not even worth it half the time. I reckon they're mostly doing this to capatalise on the big fish, notably sales from things like Steam and Netflix. Push the goods and services tax early before online services become any bigger then it already is and affects too many people to tax without a fall out. Once its in place they set themselves for taxes in the future for future services (assuming we still have an internet that can run them).
I read that link before posting here in the forum, but couldn't make sense of it.
I did more reading today and found this https://www.ato.gov.au/business/international-tax-for-busine… which seemed to clarify things for me more.
I think what I learnt was:
I found an article that has a pretty good explanation:
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2017/apr/19/australia-p…
Section 3.1 in the previously linked pdf onwards also has a pretty good breakdown - foreign seller needing a turnover threshold of $75,000 (just like local businesses) and a point about how business-to-business isn't taxable too. edit: non-compliance by smaller sellers or some other foreign market places too
So they are targeting extra GST for 'major foreign suppliers' aka big fish like amazon, ebay, etc
How does this work with AliExpress & goods from eBay sent by Chinese vendors. How do they collect GST when the vendor is located outside of Australia?
I'm thinking eBay/AliExpress "may" collect the GST as it's the digital platform that is used to sell goods, but don't quote me on that.
I remember when this was purpose that companies like eBay were saying “F*** you, we won’t send anything to Aus then”.
Wouldn’t be worth eBay time and effort to collect our government GST for them.
Waste of resources from a business pov.
Don't forget to refer to this as the Harvey Norman Tax.
Gerry Harvey pushed for it, he deserves the credit.
And the subsequent boycott?
all well earned by Gerry :)
More info here: https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/protectionist-tariff…
What I found interesting was this line "From July 1, clothing, electronics and furniture bought overseas worth less than $1000 from companies such as Amazon and eBay will be slugged with a 10 per cent GST.."
My impression was that ALL purchases were going to be slugged? Hopefully my regular Iherb orders will not be molested.
"The new online tax will only be collected from self-declaring overseas retailers with turnovers of more than $75,000 and the Australian Tax Office has no power to punish those beyond the ATO's jurisdiction.
"The ATO can't really deny access to the websites, they might try to to slow parcels down at the border but it is very unlikely that foreign taxation offices are going to help enforce that tax," he said.
"The tax is designed with the near impossibility of its collection in mind."
https://www.ato.gov.au/law/view/document?docid=COG/LCR20181/…
https://www.ato.gov.au/law/view/document?docid=COG/LCR20182/…
https://www.ato.gov.au/law/view/document?docid=COG/LCR20183/…
In summary, customs role doesn't change. Only responsible for +$1000 items.
Only sales to non-gst registered & end consumers count towards the $75k. Sales to aust businesses who are registered for GST won't pay GST as they'd only claim it anyway. eBay/Amazon etc selling on behalf of sellers will collect the GST. Redeliverers ( avoiding won't post to aust issues) will collect GST. Otherwise individual retailers have to self register and collect gst themselves.
The new world.
What if the Self register overseas retailer collected the GST and not paying back to ATO? Extra profit?
Does Ebay even have a local office? Or an ABN?
So orders from Gearbest and the like should be safe? Austposts shopmate will be collecting gst if order is via/with them.
Does any know what exactly happens to our packages from the 1st of July 2018
I have received a package today from England with a sticker says goods worth GBP 50
Have received packages before but haven't noticed any such stickers (admittedly was not looking for them)
I reckon any packages received after the 1st of July will have these stickers declaring how much their contents are, and whether GST has been paid
If not paid we will have to pay 10% of the declared value in Aussie dollars to the person delivering the package/ to the post office
Is this possibly what will happen or does anyone know otherwise
Mine's fine, how about yours?
Guess I'm going to be buying a lot of…. bread… from overseas. Bread's not taxed with GST right?
I too am fuzzy on the details. How are customs supposed to know how much we paid for something? It's not like my phone covers come with a receipt.
Most overseas items I have bought, have a big sticker containing details of the item. What it is, weight, value etc. Been like that as long as I can remember
I agree, there has always been a 'Customs Declaration' for incoming / outgoing parcels, completed by the sender.
Not sure how the declared value is confirmed.
Ah. Okay… I sort of remember seeing stickers with description, but not price. Not sure if they're required to put a price on there.
@BadGiraffe: noticed price for the first time
wondering if this is a new requirement.
the value was declared by the sender- in this case a retailer
Now if my friend was to send me shoes worth $500 from England
but declare the value to be $100
I end up paying only $10 and save $40
but if the package is lost, the insurance only covers $100, I lose $400
I suppose this would be one way to avoid fake declarations of value?
Called a CN22 form.
As OzBargainers we are only interested in the little box with 'Gift' beside it. I get a lot of 'gifts' from China. Sometimes 'commercial samples' as well (which is actually true).
Show us the sticker
Hey all
I bought something from Amazon US and paid for it a few days ago, but it won't arrive in Australia until after July 1st. Do you think it'll get stopped in customs for the GST charges? It's under $1000. Can't find anything online that covers stuff that is paid for prior to GST changes, but delivered after.
ATO says it is the invoice date, not the delivery date.
GST will generally apply to sales of goods where the invoice is issued or payment is received on or after 1 July 2018. It will not apply to sales made earlier (unless GST applies under existing rules) even if the goods do not reach Australia until after 1 July 2018.
Thanks a lot!
Hi, I would like to be clarified if I buy, say this product:
https://www.zapals.com/lenovo-hc06-5v-8a-5-port-usb-quick-ca…
and Zapals does not have a GST number in Australia.
How much I need to pay in GST and by what method?
TIA
me too, 'd like to know , i bought a $3 gamepad from rosegal in early May but nothing until now
hope to receive it before next month
doesn't matter when it arrives - it goes on when the invoice or payment occurred.
GST will generally apply to sales of goods where the invoice is issued or payment is received on or after 1 July 2018. It will not apply to sales made earlier (unless GST applies under existing rules) even if the goods do not reach Australia until after 1 July 2018.
Buy before end of this month and it's not an issue.
Unless Dutton's goons try to tack it on once it lands. Not worth it for $1.50 I'd say.
So i buy today and it is posted on 1 July and lands here on 20 July, it will be under older rules?
GST is currently charged at time of payment, so you'd expect so. Elsewhere on this site, someone mentioned that Royal Mail delivery staff collect VAT on delivery.
As far as I'm aware, no such arrangement exists here.
Unlike the UK (and most other countries) where GST/VAT is collected on entry, the Australian Government decided this process was all too hard (and costly) and "bullied" the seller, or intermediary to collect the GST on their behalf. For example, EBay will add the GST to an overseas import transaction, bill the buyer and then pass the GST onto the Australian Government. The same applies to overseas mail forwarders such as MyUS.
There has been commentary that any overseas seller with annual sales volume of over $A75.000 will also be required to collect the GST - how on earth the Australian Government could every track of enforce this is almost, if not, totally impossible.
In essence I would suggest that any overseas purchases from "smaller" sellers will escape the GST net.
couldn't overseas sellers profit by collecting gst and then pocketing it?
Couldn't small local shops do that too?
@Domingo: Maybe, however the government has jurisdiction over the local shop and can enforce it's policies through state violence. It doesn't have jurisdiction over the world, regardless of what their fantasies are.
So what happens to parcels shipped to Australia without the GST importer code in the declaration after GST day 1/7/2018?
Does everything get stopped by borderforce and a letter sent / phone call made to receiver or just delivered as before? Obviously the item may be a present or an item purchased by a GST registered entity, in which case no GST is due or of very low value so maybe $1 due so how exactly is this going to work.
Provided the value is under $1000 total (including shipping costs and Insurance), no change as far as I'm aware.
If the value is above $1000, same as always.
The new rules call for GST to be added at the checkout by (some) overseas retailers, GST is not being added at the border, unless it is over the Import Duty Limit.
Ok but that means this whole GST exercise is pointless waste of time and money, it only clips the wings of Amazon as they own an Australian subsidiary everybody else skates as Oz Gov can't touch them. And we get to continue with our merry bargain hunting ways without interference.
Other big retailers like Kogan will likely comply as well. As will Google, Apple, Netflix etc.
But yes, it's a bit toothless.
The problem is that the costs of collecting 10c each on the millions of $1 item from China far exceed the collected funds.
It's better than nothing (from the government's perspective)
https://www.homeaffairs.gov.au/trav/impo/buyi
According to this link it is supposed to be collect at point of sale and not at border.
Well yes, but most overseas retailers are simply not going to be collecting GST and they are beyond the reach of the Australian government unless they have any assets in Australia which 95%+ will not, so if Borderforce are not planning to do any enforcement we can ignore the whole thing.
Nice, 3 threads merged in 2 hours.
Can anyone give me a run down on this gst why is it i get items from euro etc and im not charged gst when they arrive.
Im planning on sending items to myself from family overseas and was curious if this will be same? Is it only if big companies like amazon,ebay etc then charge gst i tnought it was everywhere.
As with every stupid government policy, this hasn't been thought through properly. It'll be a disaster and it'll pretty much mean that no-one gets their overseas purchases delivered quickly.