GST on imported goods still happening December 1st?

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#2349133 6-Nov-2019 22:10

old3eyes:

My concern is that if I buy something from a retailer say from the UK or a state in the US that won't ship to NZ but will to YouShop and they charge me sales tax , YouShop then charges another 15% GST for the item again. Can I get the additional GST back or will it be tough double dipping??

YouShop address is a state with no sales tax. If you buy anything in the USA sending to YouShop you will not be charged sales tax, so no need to worry.

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richms

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#2349134 6-Nov-2019 22:13

Saw on the retro gaming facebook that Aliexpress is starting to show not available to ship to NZ on many items. I had a look in my cart and bought a couple of things with no upcoming 11/11 discount, and that went thru fine. One of the things has NZ as not available but I was able to add it back to my cart again. Not looking like the 11/11 will be very useful this year if they are playing this crap.

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SirHumphreyAppleby

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#2349148 7-Nov-2019 06:29

richms:

Saw on the retro gaming facebook that Aliexpress is starting to show not available to ship to NZ on many items.

There are distribution points in various countries outside of China that will not ship to NZ. Most items can be shipped from China as well, but it's possible some can't be. I suspect you may run in to that with things like lithium batteries that can't be shipped by air.

There is no reason for individual sellers to stop sending to NZ (if that's even possible) as AliExpress will be handling the financial side of the transaction.

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#2349234 7-Nov-2019 09:11

sbiddle:

old3eyes:

trig42:

old3eyes:

Behodar:

If the overseas business sells less than $60k/year to NZ, then it doesn't need to do anything. If the items are less than $1000 then no GST will be collected.

I got the impression from the email that anything going thru YouShop will be charged GST.

Yes, you will be. As you *should* be for anything else you buy from a retailer that does over $60,000 worth of business to NZ customers a year. Amazon will be. AliX? Not sure, but probably.

My concern is that if I buy something from a retailer say from the UK or a state in the US that won't ship to NZ but will to YouShop and they charge me sales tax , YouShop then charges another 15% GST for the item again. Can I get the additional GST back or will it be tough double dipping??

I don't see how any retailer there would charge you GST - the destination of the products is not NZ.. And if they don't ship to NZ they're highly unlikely to even have made changes to their back end systems or registered for GST.

Last year I bought some CD labels from UK Amazon. The re seller would not ship to NZ so I had it shipped to UK YouShop. The UK seller charged me UK VAT as it was going to a UK address. Under the new scheme I could be also charged NZ GST as well.

Regards,

Old3eyes

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#2349249 7-Nov-2019 09:25

Again, as per my example... You bought in the UK, got local sales tax applied since you have a "local" address.

Buy in the USA and the YouShop address is in a state with no local tax.

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grimwulf

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#2349252 7-Nov-2019 09:31

Have had a good read on the YouShop situation and it does seem like they're planning to collect GST on behalf for all parcels shipped by them.

Which is a very odd situation as they aren't a tax agent and I don't see what legal right they have to do that.

GST is a goods and services tax that's paid at the point of consumption - i.e. to the seller. If they don't collect, thats and issue between them and the government, it has nothing to do with YouShop.

Does that apply to courier companies too? If Courierpost lets say, gets a package to deliver that hasn't had GST applied for some reason - are they now going to charge you GST on that package? Big fat nope on that.

Also YouShop aren't in a position to value the goods, so they'd just have to go off whats on the shipping label - or invest in some sort of inspection effort which would add commercial cost. It's odd.

That aside, it's likely not even a very good commercial decision for them, for the following reasons :-

If the overseas seller ships to NZ but you were just going to use Youshop for convenience, they will lose this business - highly likely that overseas seller shipping minus 15% GST is going to be cheaper than Youshop shipping +15% GST. In short, ship direct where possible.
If the overseas seller doesn't ship to NZ, YouShop are in danger of losing business to other freight forwarders that simply don't do this GST collection. In short, look for a competitor to ship your goods.
If neither of those situations apply, or you cba, then use YouShop only for GST paid stuff.
And finally then the aspect covered by this - if no one else has charged you GST, then YouShop will.

What's to stop overseas sellers (possibly disreputable ones depending on your views) simply marking GST paid on their packages? Are YouShop going to interrogate that? Check pricing? I highly doubt it. Again, added commercial cost for what reason? and what benefit?

It's wierdness brought about by the government ownership of NZPost no doubt, it strikes me as really odd.

Still, the simplicity of buying <NZ$1000 goods overseas and shipping with just the +15% applied will likely still win out for most people - it's the path of least resistance and will still be much cheaper than NZ retailers.

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richms

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#2349315 7-Nov-2019 10:30

SirHumphreyAppleby:

richms:

Saw on the retro gaming facebook that Aliexpress is starting to show not available to ship to NZ on many items.

There are distribution points in various countries outside of China that will not ship to NZ. Most items can be shipped from China as well, but it's possible some can't be. I suspect you may run in to that with things like lithium batteries that can't be shipped by air.

There is no reason for individual sellers to stop sending to NZ (if that's even possible) as AliExpress will be handling the financial side of the transaction.

No, it was everything, reload a page with shipping prices and it would change to not able to ship. Still could add to my cart tho which in the past for things that actually wouldnt ship here wouldnt be an option so I think they are screwing around in the lead up to this.

People in AU just contact sellers to trade off aliexpress to avoid the GST, so I can forsee that happening too. Also I was told that sellers there like to have paypal over alipay for some reason.

Richard rich.ms

grimwulf

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#2349381 7-Nov-2019 12:04

Was compelled to actually go read the legislation, which I try to avoid as legalese drives me nuts, but in this case I was genuinely confused by the YouShop situation.

Turns out the legislation actually designates 'redeliverers' such as YouShop as the 'supplier' of the goods and therefore they then have the responsibility to collect GST.

So it wasn't a crazy decision by NZPost/YouShop, this was imposed upon them by the legislation. They actually have to - by law collect GST on all goods shipped by them.

There was also a number of clauses in there about re-imbursement of GST if for some reason you ship something via a 'redeliverer' that had already had GST collected. So expect there will be some bumps in the road for that situation - i.e. seems that YouShop may well blanket add 15% GST regardless of whether the package itself says GST paid.

I guess that simplifies things for them, but customers will be left with attempting to get the GST reimbursed.

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#2349390 7-Nov-2019 12:17

grimwulf:

There was also a number of clauses in there about re-imbursement of GST if for some reason you ship something via a 'redeliverer' that had already had GST collected. So expect there will be some bumps in the road for that situation - i.e. seems that YouShop may well blanket add 15% GST regardless of whether the package itself says GST paid.

I guess that simplifies things for them, but customers will be left with attempting to get the GST reimbursed.

I don't see any situations in which (NZ)GST will have been charged by the seller if they are sending the goods to Youshop.

If in the US, the retailer/seller will not charge GST if the shipping address is in Oregon, they won't even charge US Sales Tax (Oregon has no sales tax).

In the UK, the retailer will charge VAT as the shipping address is a UK one (for UK Youshop), the retailer won't send to US Youshop (otherwise why wouldn't they send it direct to NZ?)

SirHumphreyAppleby

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#2349391 7-Nov-2019 12:18

richms:

People in AU just contact sellers to trade off aliexpress to avoid the GST, so I can forsee that happening too. Also I was told that sellers there like to have paypal over alipay for some reason.

You can just contact the sellers through AliExpress. I've done this a few times and most have been happy to complete the transaction via Paypal, likely because they are paid more quickly. You lose AliExpress buyer protection, but given how complicated they make the dispute process, Paypal protection is probably a better option.

old3eyes

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#2349797 7-Nov-2019 21:28

freitasm: Again, as per my example... You bought in the UK, got local sales tax applied since you have a "local" address.

Buy in the USA and the YouShop address is in a state with no local tax.

I would have bought in the US if it had been avaible there.

Regards,

Old3eyes

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#2350011 8-Nov-2019 09:32

old3eyes:
freitasm: Again, as per my example... You bought in the UK, got local sales tax applied since you have a "local" address.

Buy in the USA and the YouShop address is in a state with no local tax.

I would have bought in the US if it had been avaible there.

Exactly my point. Because you had no other option you had to pay goods tax twice. That doesn't change how it works.

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#2350480 8-Nov-2019 21:59

This legislation came about because NZ importers and retailers cried foul that people could buy and were buying online from overseas cheaper because they didn’t have to pay GST. When it was announced this led to a discussion and some debate here on GZ about price disparity, mostly in support of the consumer but some sticking up for the importer/distributor/retailer. (Can’t find the thread, sorry.)

We’re getting our kitchen re-done and I was browsing for sinks. Below are a couple of screengrabs from an NZ and a UK seller respectively for the same item. It’s no wonder the NZ consumer feels they’re getting shafted at times.

It’s German made so I know it needs to be transported a lot further, but someone, somewhere is creaming it.

Sometimes I use big words I don't always fully understand in an effort to make myself sound more photosynthesis.

billgates

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#2350490 8-Nov-2019 22:22

We recently imported our sinks and tap ware from overseas. The Grohe stuff even after paying GST/customs at border including shipping was 3 times still cheaper buying from overseas than buying locally and the savings added up quickly considering how many taps we needed. There is a lot of ticket clipping that happens here unfortunately.

Do whatever you want to do man.

richms

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#2350492 8-Nov-2019 22:26

billgates: We recently imported our sinks and tap ware from overseas. The Grohe stuff even after paying GST/customs at border including shipping was 3 times still cheaper buying from overseas than buying locally and the savings added up quickly considering how many taps we needed. There is a lot of ticket clipping that happens here unfortunately.

And extremely poor service and support as a result, since the place you bought it from will have to deal with someone else to get parts, who will then have to order them from someone else. No way that it could be sent straight to you because they have to recieve the items, remove any details of where it came from because that is so secret and hard to find, before re-shipping it on to you.

Richard rich.ms

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