This is not going to go down well with OzBargainers?
https://www.theage.com.au/business/companies/amazon-to-block…
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-05-31/amazon-to-block-us-sit…
Sign the Petition to SCRAP the GST on online goods sold online costing less than $1000
that was my point! that's why I said, Amazon US is the issue.
@boomramada:
I'd say the Aus Goverment is the issue for coming up with the dumb idea in the first place.
"Hello foreign company, would you mind collecting some tax for us? Ta!"
We all knew this was going to happen, eBay even said they weren't going to do it.
@boomramada:
Amazon (US et al) doesn't need Australia. We're no great loss to them.
Ebay has always been against it: https://www.computerworld.com.au/article/617797/ebay-threate…, mainly due to the hassle of implementing it.
Ok, so if I buy from eBay.co.uk 10% gets added. What if that seller lists it on eBay.com.au and claims its location is Australia (as they Chinese do)?
Add GST to that too? But it's not foreign…
Is your vote the reason why I don't have nbn yet ?
I had broadband before "NBN" came along, and iinet bought my local provider and made the connection slow :(
"Treasurer Scott Morrison says he “doesn’t apologise” for the government’s decision to push ahead with controversial online GST changes despite Amazon cutting off access to its overseas sites as a result."
He might regret it later. You know, when he has no job. The government is chasing small fry when they should be looking at the big fish. THAT's their job, not this stupidness. The won't collect any GST from this, people will just redirect their money elsewhere, and it won't be to that Great Aussie Whinger otherwise known as Harvey Norman.
Yep, Scott Morrison has cut off access to many goods the public could not otherwise have access to. All this to appease big business, and only a couple of serial whingers at that.
Once again the man on the street will suffer.
How very ironic that the Liberal Party espouse free markets and trade but implement protectionist policies like this.
Morrison will have no regret. He'll have a big fat taxpayer funded pension and he'll get one of those "jobs for mates" on top of it.
All they will manage to achieve is pissing off the little people who are simply trying to get the best deal possible in what should be an open market. But when you are drastically overpaid for what you do, you don't worry about things like that. Nanny State Australia is rapidly progressing towards communism and it's got nothing to do with "bargains" and "shopping" but their decisions are now messing with our fundamental rights. What's next?
rapidly progressing towards communism
How? By introducing this new tax that local big business wanted?
It's rapidly progressing to fascism if anything.
What's next? Simple. Type "Tommy Robinson" into youtube and you can't miss it. (I don't watch TV, but I just bet the Australian media is censoring it.)
Because the US and western propaganda has done such a great job at brainwashing people to associate communism with lack of freedom and rights
Capitalists: "Capitalism the best and anything going wrong with this world is due to communism."
Communists: "Communism is the best and everything wrong with this world is due to capitalism."
Both over-simplified and false. (Particularly / more so the capitalists.)
@GregMonarch: > "Tommy Robinson"
Stephen Christopher Yaxley, you mean.
He's another attention seeking loser; paedophile cases have media restrictions on them to protect the kids. He broke the restriction, too bad for him.
Derryn Hinch did the same years ago and got jailed as well.
but I just bet the Australian media is censoring it.
Why would we care? Would the UK report on Hinch getting jailed?
@GregMonarch:
are we getting censored already for criticizing oligarchs here? you can still blast the cronies in the comments, you just can't talk about the 'protected groups' in the negative.
(also bit off-topic but tommy would've favoured this new tax imo. he's more protectionist leaning).
@D C:
it's not about the guy. he may be an attention seeker ego-maniac, u can have nothing but contempt for this Stephen guy doesn't worry me, but it should not take away attention from the main issue,
what's at stake is the rule of law in the UK. he got arrested and within 2 hours he was sentenced to 13 months! then the judge put a country-wide BAN preventing any media reporting on why he was even jailed. that kind of thing is inconceivable for the most hardcore of alledged criminals, let alone a civilized western country like the UK. not to mention he was merely repeating information that was already publicly available via the mainstream media and he was doing this on the sidewalk on public street, not even in the building. e.g. https://metro.co.uk/2017/05/12/protests-outside-court-as-29-…
he got arrested and within 2 hours he was sentenced to 13 months!
Someone just discovered a suspended sentence doesn't mean you got off scott-free.
then the judge put a country-wide BAN preventing
Yeah, that's bollocks.
@thevofa: I think Communism is a more apt. The iron curtain cut off all choice; this is similar (just using a tax to do so rather than plain import bans).
@D C: They scale of the rapes and child abuse that have occurred in the UK the last two decades is shocking. The indifference of UK local government departments and Police is terrible. Ignoring what was going on under their noses just to protect the multicultural experiment, just barbaric to throw sections of your community to the wolves and not care. Social services, the UK press have also been derelict in their duties. Tommy has been one of the few voices trying to get attention to the industrial abuse of lower working class white girls, cause libtards, feminists and multiculti's are too narrow-minded in their political views
to have this crop up as an issue
COMMUNISM REEEEEEEEEEEE
Scott-no-friends will have Scott-no-job
Hmmm - I wonder how this will be evaluated precisely, as my means of payment with Amazon is an Australian credit card, with associated Australian (PO box) address, but my delivery addresses are a mixture of Australian ones and EU ones. If I'm in the EU and ordering to an EU address I guess it'll be ok, but if I order to an Australian address they must re-direct at time of check-out - ? Guess I'll have to see.
Amazon US always stops the online order process when you select an AU address for an item that can't be shipped to that address.
I foresee a big increase in the use of torrents to enable us to obtain the music we want that will no longer be available in Oz.
I believe this is a stunt to put pressure on the government to reverse the tax. By blocking Australian users Amazon will lose about a Billion dollars worth of sale per year. This doesn't make any sense. I think that this is a big "(profanity) you" from Jeff Bezos to the Australian Government.
Considering that $1B is just a tiny part of their overall $180B revenue I think it makes sense for them, sadly. (What kind of world do we live in where $1B sales is considered "small fry" ?!)
In a world where their overall sales is 180B in revenue.
1 billion is small frys.
That like not 0.55%,
i.e. less than 1% of their total sale revenue.
Amazon will lose out on revenue but why would anyone in Australian government care? How is that applying pressure when that is $1billion of cash no longer leaving the country.
Hey mate, where did you get the $1 billion figure from?
What's Amazon?
Apparently some rainforest
I should stop reading about this. It is messing with my serenity…
"SERENITY NOW!!! SERENITY NOW!" (ala George Costanza style)
… insanity later
I will dance on Gerry Harvey's grave.
Cannot believe Australian consumers are being screwed like this. Amazon Australia's range is terrible. They never ever have what I want even though I want to buy from them.
Dance on his grave? I'd rather dump a truckload of fluoroantimonic acid on it.
WHY WAIT? ;-p
I'd desecrate his grave - but that would involve spending time/money/resource on him, that is something that I cannot do.
b-but Amazon won't ship your fluoroantimonic acid here..
Good. Now drop income taxes. I don't mind GST on non-essential items, but income tax irritates me to my core.
Media sourced this from OZB and they don't even give us credit lol.
Also apparently ebay to follow suite.
News.com.au: https://www.google.com.au/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=we…
ABC: https://www.google.com.au/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=we…
Apparently e-bay will be doing this as well. So not more cheap China goods ?
and How likely is it that local retailers will price gouge us even more now that our US major shopping option is being cutoff along with possibility that non au sellers on ebay have to charge us 10% (will likely be more because you know why).
In response to Amazon’s announcement, eBay and Alibaba both confirmed they would not be blocking Australian users.
https://www.news.com.au/finance/business/retail/we-regret-an…
well that's not too bad then.
Elections have consequences.
Yeah, unfortunately opposition will come up with even worst ideas, can't win!!
It looks like from your comments above you just love the Turnbull government. Are you Gerry ? do you work for the liberals ? I would like to know how opposition will come up with worse ideas when they actually had the good ones and Liberals just ruined everything.
I don't like either gov. I pick the best at that time.
Gov always make stupid polices, eg, carbon tax, try to add mining tax, try to get rid of negative gearing, and now this.
But companies like Amazon should be able to deal with these gov changes. Its stupid to just to block entire country.
I usually buy stuff from Amazon when its at least 30% off Au price or hard to find in Au. Adding 10% gst don't bothers me. If gov cant go through this, they will find a other way to screw us.
Gov always make stupid polices, eg, carbon tax, try to add mining tax, try to get rid of negative gearing, and now this.
What's wrong with those? (They sound like Labor policies, hmmm.)
The ignorant will always think of an alternate universe where opposition policy is worse than what is actually happening.
Without any actual proof of course.
@boomramada: Best at the time?
The worst Labor government is still a billion times better than the best Lib government.
@D C:
LOL , You got me there, but I did vote for labor when Rudd initiate the NBN, then the back stab and carbon tax, which I didnt vote for.
@boomramada: Exactly. People need to stop falling for the deception. BOTH labor and liberal are scum.
@D C: The mining tax was the best tax ever and not a complete cash grab from KRudd.
Getting rid of Negative gearing is more interesting - perhaps we should follow the usa route, in terms of deductability for Owner Occ housing.
Try Australian Conservatives or The Dems. Maybe be better luck.
I've only ever bought one thing from HN and that was last century so I can't boycott it. Why would you buy anything from HN?
That's the one positive to take from this whole situation- Gerry has successfully lobbied to have this tax imposed on australian retail buyers, but it still won't save his business. There are five other Aussie electrical retailers I can think of off the top of my head that undercut him almost 100% of the time. Maybe it's time for HN and Myer to revisit their business models and consider how to move with the modern global market?
To be fair to Gerry, he's ok on furniture but not the best and he tends to have ok deals on whitegoods but since thats a once in a decade purchase you can avoid him easily on that front.
That does sounds fair enough- I have no experience of buying furniture from Gerry's folk, so I have no idea about how the quality or pricing of these compares to other retailers.
Why would you buy anything from HN?
AMEX cashback deals. $300 Switch, $200 PS4 Slim.
Thats not the narrative that ozB experts are pushing… be quiet!
LOL wow, I didn't expect to get neg'd for this post!
Sometimes I post stupid things and deserve negs, but his is a legitimate answer.
I don't frequently shop at Harvey Norman, but if it's the cheapest place to buy something, then that's where I'll go.
Regardless of how this plays out I predict a 20% or more rise in local pricses.
I just bought Cometron 7x50 binocs from Amazon US. Not even available here. Tasco Essential 7x50 are literally 4x the price even with shipping taken into account.
The other thing I haven't seen mentioned is selling. If you can't list on Amazon US that is a whole damn market closed off to Aussie companies.
10% of nothing is nothing. But supply and demand guarantees we see large markups.
I could spit!
If you can't list on Amazon US that is a whole damn market closed off to Aussie companies.
yeah WTF@$%&!!!! I was about to say how come no sellers are venting, but I guess Aussie Amazon sellers are practically non-existent right now in comparison to Aussie eBay sellers who sell their stuff to the US market…
imagine if eBay were to do this LOL
i am a consumer. all i want to day every day is buy buy buy. i dont look out the window. what is this sunshine you speak of?
What are you on?
a couch right now. blue one from ikea.
Go away Harvey! Should be the new jingle.
No Harvey Norman, No!
Dishonest scum he is. I know who's really terrible here - and it ain't Amazon, a USA company, pulling out of Australia due to a foreign government now demanding they play tax man on their behalf because that whining jackass pushed for it. Especially when Amazon HAS an Australian version.
The next time I see see a HN item on Ozbargain, or have to buy whitegoods, I'll remember this Norman. And I've got a LONG memory.
"For over ten years they've had a big advantage over Australian companies…" Yeah - they sold products no Australian company sold.
"Now Amazon have to pay tax like everyone else, and they're squealing, they're squealing…" No they're not - they've shrugged, yawned, and walked away.
He really has no clue what a complete idiot he sounds. Amazon won't be paying the tax, the punters will. Amazon are simply refusing to do the governments job for them by becoming tax collectors. The government wants the money, but wants to do nothing for it apart from to put out it's hand.
Consumers should shut their wallets tight for a couple of months en masse and see who is squealing then. It won't be Amazon.
I've got a LONG memory
And yet the world continues to turn and not give two….
Maybe we should start handing out flyers out the front of HN informing their shoppers that Gerry is making shopping for Australians more expensive
Dreadful Amazon, dreadful. How dare you try to stop my billions while I find a way to pay international workers less money. Dreadful!!
Eeryone should look up regressive taxation and protectionism and its effect on domestic pricing and competitive health.
if you cant be bothered then essentially this tax is pile of uneconomic crap designed solely to make some Australian retailers richer at the expense of the vast majority of customers.
Very bad news for 80% of the population.
Sooo top 5 things to buy before july 1st?
I copped a 64gb extreme pro sd card for 50, its currently 150 local lol…
They're kidding themselves if they think ANY Australian business is going to be better off. I need to buy a certain car part. Cheapest price here is over $900. Price on Aliexpress? $25.
Hopefully AliExpress doesn't block.
Doubt any Chinese company would pay attention to Aussie govt
with the gst plus (I think at least) a $5 custom fee, you'll still get a bargain at $60 compared to local scams prices. the issue will be with very cheap items, as gst is only 10% but the custom fee could be much more
e.g. $1 item, gst 10%, custom fee likely 500%. repeat for every ~$1 item…
VPN” solved
Amazon's decision to not even ship products to Australia regardless of where they are purchased will scupper any plans tech-savvy shoppers might have to use geo-blocking software to get around the ban.
Thanks for this warning. I have a wishlist of items I've been putting off purchasing for ages. And spare parts for things I've already purchased over the years which are not, and never will be, available in Australia.
SCUM government - damn I hate BOTH labor AND liberal. They have to interfere and control everything to make our lives miserable just because they can. If they want they're cut, they should have added it when the items get here, not force collecting it onto overseas companies.
Make the individuals pay gst on any item imported, but let huge companies pay minimal tax… Good one!
What's next? Actually, i don't want to give any pollies any ideas!
The tax goes on top of the retail price anyway, so it’s just a matter of who collects it, it’s still the consumer who pays for it. The government wants the taxes but wants other people to collect it for them.
I'll tell you what's next… Once the government has conned these overseas companies into collecting tax for Australia, they'll have them hooked - and they'll increase the tax, and find new creative taxes under a different name, etc.
Oh yes … There is no more new tax under Labor/Libreal. It will be called a duty / levies / surcharge / scheme, etc
Most of this shithole we are in is cos of the Liberals mate..
Just look at the shitty NBN we got.
Now this shit.
Passing on the GST to the ATO will be the only tax Amazon AU pays i reckon
I wonder how this will affect access to my US kindle account. I've made a number of purchases on there and collected plenty of freebies.
Honestly I think it'll affect your kindle account. I saw on tv that's it includes items less than $1000 from international sellers. Just speculating myself.
Yeah, I have transferred over to AU, keeps my books. Hopefully, that is enough. So, no more free US kindle books? I think it's okay as it's sent to the cloud. No credit card or address needed.
The market will find a way to evolve. It always does.
Time to stock up on Anker 10ft lightning cables!
Amazon US $11 ($23 AUD delivered) https://www.amazon.com/Anker-PowerLine-Lightning-Certified-C…
Amazon AU $30 https://www.amazon.com.au/Anker-Powerline-Lightning-Certifie…
FU amazon AU
Amazon USA aren't happy about collecting it.