D, there will be imports (GST at the least) added to digital online purchases from July. AT THE VERY LEAST.
SMH led with telling us ALL imports will attract gst, but they were scare mongering from other things that ive read:
https://www.ato.gov.au/general/new-legi ... ted-goods/
This was more balanced:
http://thenewdaily.com.au/money/your-bu ... -shopping/
and contains this:
"But the application of GST to physical goods, heralded in this year’s budget, is yet to be legislated. The government released a draft of the proposed law in November, and submissions closed on December 2."
Really it should apply to digital goods ONLY, but... ebay has already got the code in place to charge GST, you can see it on your purchases from abroad.
Bear in mind that if you import goods over $1k now you attract GST, Inport Duty and a fee. That fee is dependant on who carries the goods, Ive not seen anything to say its standardised and have seen different fees on bills. And... of course, Auspost probably miss most parcels, FedEX[1] miss none as they enjoy getting their fee to much and have better resources. The plan was for that not to change, but who knows... no one has said it wont outright AFAIK.
This from the ATO doesnt mention digital, that says to me its 'all goods', digital and physical... and also services :
https://www.treasury.gov.au/~/media/Tre ... goods.ashx
So, may advice is that if you have the cash and want to buy from a larger online company selling parts to Aus, Partzilla, Amazon, Ebay. etc etc etc then you should do it before June, that way your order will be processed, sent, cleared and landed with you before July 1, when who knows if FedEx/Auspost etc will charge you or not on entry if under $1000 (its 'not', as per the old rules), its just not clear and why chance it if you already know what you need to order post July? The plan is 'not' but....
Bear in mind also that the seller registration with the ATO is for those who sell >$75k, thats a very low $ figure when selling anything into Aus really unless you sell 2c widgets, as I bet post is included in that figure and we all know how silly postage can be. I say that as it is included in the UK system for VAT reg as its all part of the money you take from the customer, including services you onsell like post. Assuming that customs have/build[2] the infrastructure to catch all senders addresses and record them, then create reports based on value then they can find and potentially black list sites[3] or goods from those sellers who are not registered. However, I cannot see that anytime soon. Its the 80/20 rule in action and the initial biz case for the systems on large players costed in nicely, the latter not so much... as ever. But, one day this will be done.
We should also note that we've had it great for a very long time. 1000 dollars is(was?) fantastic, no one in UK/EU would believe you if you said you had such a limit, theirs is basically zero and they stick to it rigidly. Interestingly I was told recently that the USA has a zero limit but will accept up to $200, and recently lifted this to around 600! Bizarre in my mind as Trump must surely change that of course to keep money/manufacturing(dont get me started on how silly that concept is) inside the USA.
Of course how did we get here? Was it Jerry Harvey moaning on about us buying overseas, or was it that the govt realised they were missing out on the tax portion of the sale? Maybe its a little of both, but the jokes on Jerry really if that is the case as 1, adding 10% to the things we buy O/S is nothing, you still often save a huge percentage doing that anyway and Jerry and his ilk needs to not rip us off instead of course (dont have the band width to discuss that here lol), and, 2, The govt is essentially saying, 'we dont care if you spend your money overseas and away from Aussie business, so long as we get our GST'. That last one is pretty amusing really, less so if youre Jerry Harvey LOL
What will be fun is if one state is allowed to have a different amount of GST than another, and NSW wanted 15% recently but the other states didnt agree they could. If that happened then the ATO would need to go back round the world and visit the ebays and amazons etc (it was a jolly for sure the first time) and ask them to charge differing rates based on postcode and I doubt they would be happy about that, especially as it opens the doors for more changes going forwards. It also means you could ship things to your mates in other states and get round the system, and the ATO wouldnt like that... and would you base the tax workings on the billing or delivery addy... huge can of worms...
Anyway, all my 2c, make of it what you will.
1 - for FedEx read 'FedEx or other courier'
2 - Its not rocket science to do this, but its also not 'free', not even close as a few on here will know.
3 - the govt already black list some download sites at the request of content holders (its a legal process but its set a precedent)
