I just read the news about some sellers that don't put GST:
https://www.channelnews.com.au/exclusive-online-retailers-gi…
What is your opinion about the sellers?
(News) List of Sellers That Don't Put GST
Lneoleo on 31/10/2018 - 09:03
Comments
Its not like the ATO actually have any legal standing over these companies if they have no actual presence in australia
They can argue that the ACCC were successful against Valve, however most of these companies are a significantly smaller operation than Valve and wouldn't be worth the time, money and effort.
Valve was only in trouble because they were selling Steam gift cards in retail shops so it could be proven they were 'dealing business in Australia'.
I assume the cost of implementing GST collection was less than the revenue lost from pulling gift cards from sale.
My point was more "yes they can target overseas companies but it's very hard". Obviously a completely different reason why they were taken to court.
"yes they can target overseas companies but it's very hard
No they cannot.
They have zero rights outside Australia.
They only thing they can do is try and prevent their business occurring here by intercepting shipments or outlawing the sale if items made by them in this country.
@Diji1: We're talking about ACCC vs Valve here.
https://www.accc.gov.au/media-release/full-federal-court-con…
https://www.accc.gov.au/media-release/high-court-dismisses-v…
What is your opinion about the sellers?
Good?
The government is probably the least efficient user of any kinds of funds for any purpose ever.
This message sent over copper wiring.
And the reason they're the most inefficient is because they privatise everything which means for profit corporations now have to get paid on top of delivering electricity or housing (the scumbag government in SA actually privatised the Housing Trust). They are also only accountable to their shareholders by law which means they constantly try and cut costs by delivering shittier and hittier services while driving costs up as high as possible
While the government does this it spins a tale for idiots called neoliberalism that says private corporations do everything better while it removes their money in the most inefficient way possible: enriching shareholders at your expense by law.
The reality is that the government can make any department it wants as efficient as it likes. It's called a budget, pretty (profanity) simple.
Yes the way our country is run is incredibly shortsighted. The government will foot the initial investment into infrastructure but then says "oh no, debt = bad" and tries to make a profit on what should instead be seen as a long term investment to grow the country and recoup costs through taxes as industries are built around our infrastructure.
It's incredibly corrupt behaviour and the only winners are the boys in parliament and their mates who they sell the projects to. The government is directly accountable to the country but they somehow believe a private company has a higher interest in delivering on value for money as opposed to trying to milk out the biggest profits for stakeholders?
And the reason they're the most inefficient is because they privatise everything
Even if this were true (and it's not), why not just cut out the middleman then?
While the government does this it spins a tale for idiots called neoliberalism
Even if you looked exclusively at actions taken by Labor or other left-leaning governments, you'd still reach the same conclusion that governments are terrible at financial management, investment, and expenditure.
The reality is that the government can make any department it wants as efficient as it likes. It's called a budget, pretty (profanity) simple.
THIS just tells me you've never actually worked with any large budget before. Efficiency isn't just spending or not spending money. There's this thing called "outcomes" that you look at too.
why not just cut out the middleman then?
Do you mean remove the for profit corporations that are ripping people off? If so yes, I agree.
Even if you looked exclusively at actions taken by Labor or other left-leaning governments, you'd still reach the same conclusion that governments are terrible at financial management, investment, and expenditure.
We don't need to just look exclusively at the so called Left, both sides are have been implementing this madness that is making the entire country inefficient. That's what the ACCC, aka the Government, says about the electricity system disaster:
Australia is facing its most challenging time in electricity markets. High prices and bills have placed
enormous strain on household budgets and business viability. The current situation is unacceptable
and unsustainable.Such efficiency, slowing down the entire economy with outrageous electricty prices while we pretend that for profit businesses make electricity cheaper. Like ideological madmen who ignore what's just happened.
THIS just tells me you've never actually worked with any large budget before. Efficiency isn't just spending or not spending money. There's this thing called "outcomes" that you look at too
And I suppose you're going to look back at the last 20 years and say the outcomes have been good? Because they haven't, the entire nation has gotten worse after moving from a nationalised to a privatised system over the past 20 years.
Ideological driven madmen will go on insisting that even though everyone is losing money and the entire economy is slowing the system is great of course.
And I suppose you're going to look back at the last 20 years and say the outcomes have been good? Because they haven't, the entire nation has gotten worse after moving from a nationalised to a privatised system over the past 20 years.
I mean, you can also look at governments which in the past 20 years have done the opposite and nationalised private businesses and see how they're doing… like Venezuela, Zimbabwe, South Africa, etc.
Ideological driven madmen will go on insisting that even though everyone is losing money and the entire economy is slowing the system is great of course.
Economies work on cycles. You want to mediate the highs, mitigate the lows. It's certainly far better than panicking, crashing and burning at the first sign of an economic slow-down. Again - examples above of that.
Wasnt there a limit like 100k+ in Australian sales to register ?
Yup. This seems like another one of those 'outrage-bait' pieces.
So now we have retailers doing different things still creating an uneven playing ground on the online retail market:
a) Retailers doing the right thing and charging GST and remitting the taxes to ATO
b) Retailers doing the dodgy and charging GST, not remitting the taxes and pocketing an extra 10% in profits.
c) Retailers not charging GST at all and are either giving ATO the two finger salute or just can't be bothered due to complexity
Now the question is, do consumers care about what categories their favourite stores belong to or do you only care about how much you're paying for your imported phones and tablets?
I say good on them. Interesting (and not unexpected)info from the OP's link.
"Yesterday Kogan.com’s shares fell 24% after the online retailer revealed that being forced to apply GST to smartphones and other leading products had hit sales in its direct-import business. The company on Monday said direct import sales – which accounted for 18 per cent of its business last year – had fallen 27.4 per cent in the first three months of the financial year compared to the same period a year ago.
This was driven by the application of GST to those sales, along with “apparent avoidance of GST by a number of foreign websites selling into Australia”, the company said, which also contributed to a decrease in its gross profit margin.
One major online operator who did not want to be named at this stage said “In the last few weeks, it’s been noticed that there has been an escalation of “dodgy” retailers avoiding the GST. This likely came about as it took them some time to realise that the Australian government is not actually enforcing the new rules (either through lack of capability or desire)”
“All of the major and respectable retailers are complying, and the “dodgy” ones have seen this as an opportunity to get a significant advantage over the market but not complying with the law. The retailers who are not complying don’t have any local presence and are renowned for not honouring warranty and service obligations as they are not subject to local regulators”.
The unintended consequences of the GST changes will be that more and more sales are pushed to the unregulated retailers as they have a significant price advantage by illegally avoiding GST – this may have a very negative long-term impact on legitimate Australian online retail”."
lols, 'government' if you think the problems they create are bad, wait until you see their solutions.
Just to drive home the point that Govt is generally useless, here's an ABC article from just today:
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-10-31/woorabinda-takes-cont…
It is one of 19 discrete and remote Indigenous communities facing the same issues, where the Queensland Government spends about $1.2 billion a year — or $29,000 per person — on services with little to show for the money.
Anyone who thinks that any of these overseas websites remit any tax taken to the ATO are just as silly and as gullible as the Australian government.
I bet all these stores will send Gerry a Christmas card this year and a big thank you for boosting their sales by 10%…
Shoutout to Gearbest. Keep it up
They should re-title the article to: "Where to shop online for an instant 10% in savings!"
Nearly all Chinese players on the field aren't charging GST thankfully.
Nearly all Chinese players on the field
aren’tarechargingkeeping GSTthankfully.FTFY…
Hahaha technically true if they're not charging for us for GST :P
Wow that’s some shitty reporting. The writer clearly isn’t a real journalist…
I suggest we keep a thread on who doesn't collect GST, who does (and keeps it) and who does (and gives it to the ATO).
Then we can all make informed decisions. I feel like the first and last of those options will be more acceptable to this community than the second.
How would you know if they keep it?
Maybe they have a registered ABN or TFN which is available to look up?
Can't pay tax in Australia without having an ABN right?
Definitely can't collect GST without holding an ABN, at least thats true if you're located in Australia, but maybe different for overseas sellers. Happy to be corrected.
Personally, I couldn't give a monkey's whether they put GST on or not. I'm buying from overseas either because local retailers don't stock the item, or the savings are WAY more than 10%. For the sorts of items I buy online (relatively low value), if the price difference is less than 10%, I'll probably buy local anyway.