GST on Ebay Purchases from July 2017

[HKB Electronics]

As most of these business will be doing under the counter book keeping the only way the ATO can
prove their turnover will be to monitor their sales on eBay. I know of several sellers who run around
20 or more stores selling the same item, so their sales will be spread over the 20 stores ie 1.5
million dollars of sales! All these stores will be registered to different users.companies etc. If they
want to stay competitive in Australia they simply keep opening and closing stores when the reach the
$75000 threshold. I would like to see how the ATO will track them down, my understanding of Hong Kong and
China etc is that they don't have st address as such and can only be found if they want to be found!

[wakychapmans]

but my understanding is that's not a problem... (in the instance of importing at least)

if you own an overseas business and your business is over $75k turnover, and you're selling to Australian customers - you have the choice to register for Australian GST or not. After all... it's your choice...

however... if you elect not to, then your customer will have his goods held up at customs and he will pay a std clearance fee (possibly duty as well) and so on.

if this happens enough, then consumers will get jack of paying the ~$42 customs clearance fee on piddly small items and they will then choose to shop elsewhere. Most likely with suppliers that will promote the fact that they are registered for gst and thus will save you $$$ and time with your order.

in the end... the market will decide.

[Marschy]

My understanding of how duty/taxes are collected on imports in the UK is the carrier assigned to deliver the goods in the UK holds the goods until the duty and or taxes have been paid which is determined based on the customs declaration attached to the parcel. In other words, the carrier is collecting the taxes on behalf of the government.

The purchaser must pay the duty/taxes before the carrier forwards the goods, so, no payment, no goods.

This is why we quite often see sellers on ebay or Aliexpress offering to understate the value of goods to lesson the tax/duty the purchaser pays when the goods reach the destination country. This is the only feasible way the government is going to collect GST on overseas purchases that I can see. i.e a mixture of carriers and customs collecting duty and or taxes. It can't be based on customs collecting duty and taxes alone, otherwise the country will come to a standstill.

Some carriers are authorised to perform customs clearance duties in the UK, not sure if it's done here in Oz, but I have an inkling that some are.