… then along came Amazon?
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That is not as fool proof as you think to assess whether GST is due. Some of us buy things from foreign sites to send to our rellies in those countries. No GST is due, although depending on the delivery destination the purchase could attract sales tax in the USA, or VAT in the EU. While the transaction has those details the payment system will not.
PS. If the litmus test for GST was just a foreign payment, consider paying GST on your travel and holiday costs in addition to the local taxes at your destination.
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shhhhhhhhhhhhh 
as crazy as that should sound, it will probably be policy in the next budget - a guilty until proven innocent approach that foists the onus on the customer to prove they don’t owe GST …
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I’ll look into the issue a bit further. In the meantime, I’ve emailed @phb the submission. If anyone else is experiencing similar issues, please let me know.
Ebay in this instance are more like the printer/distributor of junk mail flyer than the supermarket. Ebay doesn’t collect funds much less the analysis of what is and isn’t taxable (and which entity then needs to get what).
the seller is the one that would need to register and deal with the GST etc.
It would certainly have a negative impact on my soon-to-be micro-business.
My inputs are sourced either directly from overseas, or via Australian wholesalers. Either way the extra 10% would be applied.
Given that my main market is the USA, and I’m already disadvantaged due to customers having to pay postage from Aus, any extra I have to add to prices would make my business non-viable.
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Basically the GST changes will be shafting the smaller and newer businesses like yourself in favour of the big-brand incumbents like Harvey Norman and OfficeWorks.
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Have you shopped for a US resident fulfilment service? Google “fulfilment service USA” and you will get lots of hits.
@PhilT
My products are custom-dyed yarns, i.e. made to order.
Perhaps I could send a week’s worth of orders to a fulfillment house to distribute, although I’m not sure that would be cheaper overall.
If I had a product that could be shipped in bulk in advance of orders, then i can see how it would help.
Maybe the Tourist Refund Schene could be expanded to cover GST inadvertently paid for travel outside Australia?
I see the mechanism for collection of GST a nightmre…and possibly could be highly inefficient if the customer is responsible for making payment to receive goods.
It is already becoming more and more difficult to buy from overseas. They seem to block people purchasing from here, appoint someone to sell it from Australia, putting on a ridiculous markup.
I am just so sick of Australia tax!. Recently, I wanted to buy some software. It was to be downloaded, so no postage etc required.
I discovered that it was half the price in the US (even with the current conversion rate) so decided to buy it from there. Made the mistake of paying for it through PayPal.
They sent me a polite note, asking for my social security number 
They did not take the payment from PayPal, awaiting my reply.
So, I got a friend in the US to buy it for me 
However, it really makes me so angry the markup Australians put on things. As I said, it was a piece of downloadable software, nothing to be handled in any way.
However, more and more American firms refuse to sell directly to us, they make a deal with an Australian firm.
Another example.
Years ago, I bought a protective cover for my keyboard for $10 from the US
Last year, I wanted a new one. Found the website I bought it from, price has gone up about 10%. However, they wouldn’t sell me one, gave me the email address of their Australian agent.
Got in touch with her, she wanted $75 + postage!!!
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For those having difficulty buying from the US, check borderlinx (including their concierge service), and similar companies. They provide a US shipping address, and if your card is not accepted they will buy on your behalf (obviously for a fee). Still usually cheaper than buying locally 
This is equivalent to compelling Telstra to collect GST on phone orders.
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@jim, I have been called out for similarly putting ideas in our pollies heads. Let us hope they do not read this or it could be tomorrow’s news!
The item will not be released to Aust Post for delivery until duty and GST has been paid on it by you or an agent as pointed out in the reference that Phil pointed to:[quote=“TheBBG, post:7, topic:13719”]
[/quote]
This will increase the cost substantially.
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It will be interesting to see how this pans out. If it does lead to Australians being blocked from some markets, it’s effectively a non-tariff trade barrier. That’s going to attract attention from the World Trade Organisation, not to mention falling afoul of various Free Trade Agreements. This could be fun!
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Good.
I cancelled my membership with them and PayPal years ago when they took a stand against Wikileaks’ release of all the documents exposing the wrongdoings of the US politicians and agencies.
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Hi all,
Just wanted to report back. I presented on this to the Senate Economics Committee yesterday. Your comments were really useful (particularly yours @meltam - I mentioned your example to illustrate how important it is for consumers to not have disrupted postal services. Thank you!).
I was able to tell the committee that consumers care about this issue and that we need an option that doesn’t lead to additional costs (on top of the GST) and that doesn’t restrict access to international goods through sites blocking Australian purchasers.
I presented right after the Ebay/Amazon/Etsy panel. They made good points about additional costs but they were strongly promoting a “logisitics collections model” - i.e. that the tax is collected by couriers or Australia Post. I was able to raise specific concerns with costs and delays for consumers under this model (info here for those interested https://www.choice.com.au/shopping/online-shopping/buying-online/articles/low-value-threshold-gst )
The Committee seemed very aware of the risks of the Bill and I’m a bit more hopeful that it will be, at minimum, delayed.
Again - thanks all!
Erin
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Works here in Canberra in Chrome, Opera, Firefox (whether I choose to open directly with Foxit Reader or save the file and then open with either Foxit or Adobe Acrobat Reader), M$ Edge and M$ Internet Explorer (with all the same options as Firefox).
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