"GST idea for online orders mooted - Australia" Topic

I see the plan to impose GST on online purchases below 1000 bucks has been revived in Australia. A threshold reduction from 1000 down to 20, yes twenty dollars is being considered.

So, postage costs increasing and GST as well, <sob>

Hope it's just another idea that will get quashed.

How does the saying go, never stand between a State Premier and a bucket of money.

The cost of recovering the GST would be well beyond $20 USD so the bar, if introduced, will be set higher.

David F Brown

Sorry-Off topic: David. Please contact me with regards to the AIM ranges you have. ( tomdye14 AT yahoo.com )

Thanks!

That, combined with the decline in the exchange rate and the ludicrous postal charges from the US and UK, mean the death of most private orders from overseas.

A stupid decision.

It will have an impact on my orders from overseas.

I'm rating this as a likely. Last calls gents!

So it would seem I wasn't so silly accumulating a lead stash of alpine proportions after all.

Main change for most Australians will be to just make bigger orders less frequently if they are regulars. If you have a few friends who want 'stuff' just band together and make one big order from a single retailer, specify that the order is to be set in one box.

Currently this is a beat-up, today they are spruiking a zero threshold – what about letters? or junk advertising sent by mail? I think it is just an attempt to soften people up for whatever is imposed on them – say a 50% increase in overall GST and a lowered threshold for imports.

So far there has been no mention of imposing a 'collection fee' or any other add-ons.

Indeed, don't stand between a politician (of any colour) and a bucket of someone else's money.

"So it would seem I wasn't so silly accumulating a lead stash of alpine proportions after all."

Ditto.

But, having said that, there are, or have been, numerous fees, taxes, excise , and charges that I could have been slugged with over the last forty five years of overseas purchasing. In all the ordering I've done, I've been zinged maybe… half a dozen times?

"The cost of recovering the GST would be well beyond $20.00 USD USD so the bar, if introduced, will be set higher."

I think it must come down to how much return they think they'll get for their efforts. That, coupled with (in the olden days anyway) an inability to screen less than a fraction of what was actually getting into the country.

If this gets through now, they'll have already missed such a motza from me, they'll never recoup it all.

In addition, if memory serves, the government has made noises about this kind of thing before. Let's see if Australia Post really can cope with being a tax collector for the Feds.

Duck

Their talking about collecting GST on overseas goods purchases directly from banks/PayPal etc. it will be an extra GST free added to your purchase collected by financial institutions for the government.

All taxation is theft as far as I'm concerned, seeing what they spend our money on, but taxing us when we spend what is left after they've already taxed us earning it is particularly obscene.

But apart from deliberately spoiling my ballot paper when I vote, to demonstrate that I hold all politicians in equal contempt, I really can't see what to do about it!

No, we tend to be held hostage by the astute leaders of our country <cough>.

While it will add to costs of certain goods, I agree collecting on the non online site purchases, e.g. through TMP may be difficult, unless they impose a GST on value at the post office. However, I'd like to see them define online as opposed to ordered overseas using fora such as this, or email, or ink and paper…..

I guess they all want to copy Bronnie and hire a chopper, that costs money….:)

Those with lead mountains are now in front of the rest of us…

My presses will be all labeled gift…….no gst to be calculated……and if we shop with countries with free trade agreement no gst collected either

Sorry Bluewillow, Free trade agreements only remove Duty, not gst. Duty is usually 5% on nonexempt products. Gst is always collected on commercial purchases over $1,000 USD inc freight even from FTA nations.

…they've got it all worked out…Why don't they have the stones just to tax us 75% of our earnings up front so we then know what we have to spend, rather than pee around with duties and taxes on just about everything…

I saw a ticker tape under the news last night that said the treasurers had decided to implement it, so I guess it will all be revealed soon….

Yes, it has now been agreed and will be implemented by July 2017 – although Fat Boy has 'promised' sooner if a workable solution has been found…

It seems they are after a 'tax at source' solution, as apparently 80% of o/s purchases can be traced to 200 big vendors. This could cut both ways, either they ignore the small fish completely, which could be good news for wargamers, or they also then impose a parcel tax on packages not coming from the 200 – on top of this they would be sure to impose a 'handling charge' just to extort a little more out of the little guy to pay for the whole thing – that's how it works in the UK….

That's why we call it the Gouge & Screw Tax here in Canada.