Customs 3 Month GST/Duty Crackdown on Overseas Purchases

zhenjie on 10/02/2011 - 16:02

If you are thinking about underdeclaring your packages in the next few months just be aware Customs will be more stringent.

http://www.pcworld.idg.com.au/article/375895/customs_crackin…
"The operation, which started at the beginning of 2011, involves Customs officers performing an increased number of examinations of international mail. In addition, the declarations of air and sea cargo will be more stringently checked. With the increasing popularity of online shopping and eBay purchases from outside Australia, it is a common practice for expensive internationally shipped items from some regions to be marked as gifts, samples, or declared with a low value to avoid the $1000 GST threshold that applies in Australia. Packages that exceed this threshold require an additional 10 per cent goods and services duty payment on the value of the items, as well as Customs processing fees, before being released to the purchaser."

General Discussion

Comments

  • issh on 10/02/2011 - 17:15

    but what about the seller who makes the price undervalued

    i.e.

    i purchased some items that were worth, say $1500, from overseas, what happens if the seller deliberately puts $800, because i know sellers do this

    • zhenjie on 10/02/2011 - 17:55

      They can't do anything about the seller, it will be on the ownus of the receiver.

  • mxyzptik on 10/02/2011 - 18:08
    +2

    That story may be Customs' equivalent of the homeowners' "these premises are protected by electronic security and surveillance" stickers - which you can put up without actually having any systems ;)

  • samfisher5986 on 10/02/2011 - 20:50

    Looks like I'll need to get a invoice posted with my packages from now on. I do stay under the $1000 limit, but the Australian value would be more then $1000.

    But even then, I've ordered a big package full of things worth over $1000, customs picked it up and complained about a certain product, but not once mentioned anything about the value of the goods I had, I guess that won't be happening again this year.

  • CuteChocobo on 10/02/2011 - 21:09
    +1

    Thanks for the headup!
    Better be careful when ordering large amount from overseas then!

Login or Join to leave a comment
Login Join