I recently purchased an item from Amazon US and since Amazon US no longer ships to Australia I had to use Shipito to parcel forward it to Australia. I now need to return it as it is broken, but shipito won't provide me with a GST refund.
Anyone know how I get a refund on the GST I paid?
I will be using parcel forwarders frequently now due to the new GST laws… If I return a lot of items I could potential be entitled to $100s or may be even $1000s worth of GST refunds. That's a lot of money…
Are you entitled?
I should be.
If I purchase an item in Australia and returned it I would get a refund on the GST I paid.
If I returned it in person by booking a flight to USA I would get a GST refund through TRS.
So I should also get a refund in this case on the GST I paid on the item I purchased, otherwise I could theoretically bankrupt myself through paying GST by purchasing items and returning hundreds of items.
If I purchase an item
Shipito hasn’t supplied you with an item. They provide a service which has been consumed. This service cannot be reversed.
@whooah1979: I can understand not receiving a refund on the service, but I was also charged for the goods part.
The GST charge was split into two:
AU GST on Goods
AU GST on Services
I should at least get a refund on the "AU GST on Goods" part
I should at least get a refund on the "AU GST on Goods" part
A refund from whom? Amazon US doesn't collect GST and so doesn't deliver to AU, which is why you selected a shipping service in the first place.
@blitz: That's the entire point of my post, I didn't know where to get a refund from as I assumed that the GST charge was treated the same way that purchases made locally are.
@triviums: There is no GST component to what you purchased. You purchased something outside of the GST jurisdiction zone, and paid no GST on the item. Amazon is not required to collect GST for tax purposes and accordingly does not charge purchasers an additional 10% on the base purchase price. Further, they declined to do so in the future and instead geoblocked Australian purchasers to this effect. You circumvented this geoblock to purchase the product, so while you have the product, you have not paid any GST on it and, hence, are not entitled to any kind of GST refund or reimbursement.
Good luck….
There is no way to get a gst refund, as even before with a more than 1k item, if you used a ship freight forwarding service, you didnt get the gst back when returning an item back to the seller.
really??
I always thought GST was treated the same in all circumstances. Looks like I will be using a parcel forwarder I know doesn't charge GST in the future for any items I might be thinking of returning
You probably should of done that from the getgo, why pay gst if you didnt have to.
How does shipito work out how much GST you have to pay, do they actually look at the invoice of the item or is it just the valuation you put?
For the services part they charge it on shipping costs. For the goods part it's just whatever I declare the value of the item being on the customs form.
i think you might have already answered you own question? Whoever that charges you GST should then refund you that. That might be why amazon chose to close off their US website to Australians.
Thank you to everyone who made me realise just how terrible the new GST laws are. Fortunately, the seller on Amazon US has agreed to a full refund without the need for a return, which more than covers any refund I thought I was entitled to.
I am not sure that a freight forwarding company should have charged you GST for their service.
hmmm, I think there could be a problem or at least an inconsistency with these new GST laws. Last time I checked you were not charged GST on international flight tickets. Has this changed?
Take it on the chin and move on