and this is going to be the killer in the end for consumers, not that they matter.
FWIW - I do agree companies should all pay tax in AU... Otherwise we will end up with no retail jobs in this country which will snowball to nothing here if everyone shops everything overseas, things just wont be viable to stay open.
I don't know what the solution is, but its a ****in mess
The other way that Gov co might look at is Taxing people at this end somehow.. You buy $1000 helmet from USA, they tax you at the bank end this end...
Lets get this right, its not other companies paying their fare share of taxes here, they could be already paying their fare share of taxes in their own country, if they aren't then that's their Governments issue. What where talking about here is the government getting what they believe is the fare share of what you spend your money on. If the Government wishes to claim a cut from you for direct overseas purchases then it should be done as an import duty as they have always done, but they won't do it in this case as that might lead to a trade war or breech some of their new trade agreements. Easier to just hit the consumer instead who can't fight back and pass the onus onto Ebay to collect it for them. Win win for the government.
In a greater majority of cases of the things I purchase from overseas it is because they aren't made here in fact very little of what we buy is made here these days. The Government has done nothing to protect what manufacturing industry we had nor do they do anything to actively help new industry to develop, the recent ATO issues are a prime example of that, they will change rulings and then put a company out of business to obtain what they now say their due.
Reality is the Government let manufacturing disappear, it introduced and is still introducing trade agreements which end up in our farmers for instance pulling out their fruit trees. They allow our raw resources to disappear overseas etc. They allowed overseas companies to come in and compete on so called level playing fields that were always biased towards the foreign company with the reasoning it will make things more competitive and cheaper, yep that worked for Telecos, Super markets, Gas, Petrol and just about everything else. When their taxation revenue starts dropping they then look at ways to tax overseas countries to try and get a share.
It is the consumer that is making the choice, things are cheaper to buy overseas where they are made and have them shipped here. Most things if you buy them here are being imported by someone, their cut is added on then the products are sold here. If the Government is happy to let traditional manufacturing disappear, keep pushing their line "we'll create new high tech industries" etc then they should be prepared to live off he revenue generated by these new high tech industries.
Reality is, if all was well here we would be manufacturing and exporting products all over the world, we aren't. Hence why the trade is mostly one way and why the government is now trying to find new ways to raise revenue.
I watched Harveynorman jumping up and down they other day saying Amazon isn't paying taxes etc, I assume he means here. Looking at him, he is a smart man, he set up a retail chain that doesn't manufacture anything, he either obtains locally or imports from overseas, he then adds his cut and sells it to you, basically making money by just importing it and selling it to you. He makes his money from you, gives the goverment their cut of what he made from you. If he was exporting overseas I'm sure he would be arguing he has paid his taxes here why should he be paying overseas too. The consumer is making the choice, they are cutting out the middle man, unfortunately it may put some local distributors and their staff out of work which means down the track the workers will be paying more in taxes.
In the case of amazon, they effectively do the same, they operate a platform that sells things to you, instead of importing into the country they ship it to you. One imagines they pay taxes in their country or somewhere?
Amazon, their sellers and their suppliers and the countries concerned made their money from you, the item you purchased was probably not made in Australia so therefore why should our goverment get a cut out of it. The goverment may feel they should get a cut out of your spending but why, you paid your income tax, why should the goverment now demand another cut when you spend your money to buy something from overseas, if you were overseas and purchase it they wouldn't get a cut?
Reality is sometime down the track nothing will be made here, nor will resources be able to fund the goverment, look at Nauru. The only revenue streams for the goverment will be income tax and sales tax, if where not going to spend our money in Australia the government has now moved to apply sales tax to everthing you purchase from overseas where they can, your effectively paying twice, the sales tax of the country the business is based in where you purchased the item from and lets call it a new spending tax here as that what it is.
This change isn't about foreign companies paying tax here why should they, the item was manufactured overseas and effectively brought from there, its about the government taxing your spending. In the Ebay change, there is no difference to the seller, he lists his item at his price, Ebay adds the GST to the sales price and that is what's shown in the sale. When you pay the seller Ebay set aside the new GST and pass it onto the government, this is just another tax on the Australian consumer, not the seller overseas nor should it be.
