Kiwis to be hit with tax on online purchases

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Forums › Finance and wealth management › Kiwis to be hit with tax on online purchases

Gordy7

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#224379 15-Nov-2017 13:21

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=11944260

Online shoppers can expect to start paying GST for all goods they buy from overseas after Revenue Minister Stuart Nash said he would "absolutely" extend the law to cover goods as well as services.

He said that gave an unfair advantage to overseas sellers over New Zealand sellers.

I say: There is no unfair advantage if you can't buy the goods you want in NZ.

Gordy

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2degrees

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#1901248 15-Nov-2017 13:25

Weren't they already doing that?

Edit - yes, but not for little stuff, apparently.

Ah well, I guess the $2 phone cases I buy for my daughter off Ali Express instead of $20 from the mall will now be $2.30 cases instead of $20. That'll make me think twice about disadvantaging the local retailers.

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gcorgnet

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#1901251 15-Nov-2017 13:27

In the current state of things, in most cases, a 15% tax will still have the overseas alternative cheaper than the NZ retails.

Bottom line is this won't help anyone except maybe the government by raising tax revenue.

One positive, sh!tty NZ retails won't have an excuse anymore and will either go away or step up their game

KrazyKid

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#1901258 15-Nov-2017 13:38

No - its internet Goods and Services only being taxed. eg Steam Games, MS office, Spotify, Netflix, Apple store etc etc.

I'd love to know how they are going to enforce this economically. My last 2 purchases where small items - value $15 and $3.50

That's $2.25 & $0.53 in GST I owed.

Can see easily it costing $10 a item in admin costs to collect this money as really the only way is to stop them at the border and make someone pay to collect like in the UK

Sure you can automate big companies (eg Amazon) but good luck getting small merchants to pay.

And what if Ali express outright said no, we won't collect this tax. What could the government do? It's not like they can make a Chinese company do anything.

Saying all this I think it is fair that overseas purchased items include GST. Just don't see it happening.

BTR

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#1901262 15-Nov-2017 13:43

Its not going to change a thing, I needed a bunch of saddle clips recently and a pack of 10 from Mitre 10 was $6.xx and I needed 80 which I ended up purchasing ones from Aliexpress for $12 USD adding 15% isn't going to stop me from buying overseas.

Pumpedd

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#1901263 15-Nov-2017 13:45

gcorgnet:

In the current state of things, in most cases, a 15% tax will still have the overseas alternative cheaper than the NZ retails.

Bottom line is this won't help anyone except maybe the government by raising tax revenue.

One positive, sh!tty NZ retails won't have an excuse anymore and will either go away or step up their game

It will cost more to administer than the revenue it generates, but it is Labour and they have a huge bank balance.

wellygary

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#1901283 15-Nov-2017 13:57

KrazyKid:

And what if Ali express outright said no, we won't collect this tax. What could the government do? It's not like they can make a Chinese company do anything.

Ali will play nice, they have relationships with the NZ government, and want to be seen as good corporate citizens,

http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/BU1604/S00583/alibaba-group-and-nz-government-form-strategic-alliance.htm

Given that most trade is via marketplaces, (and most are owned by large corporates) I would say that they will get 85-90% of goods fairly easily,

If OZ can do it, (and in the process ping trademe), NZ should be able to adopt similar arrangements, its not rocket science.....

Batman

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#1901286 15-Nov-2017 14:05

Is trademe being pinged or is the individual seller on trademe being pinged?

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wellygary

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#1901311 15-Nov-2017 14:24

Batman: Is trademe being pinged or is the individual seller on trademe being pinged?

According to this,

https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/industries/98854885/trade-me-expected-to-have-to-levy-gst-on-all-traders-australian-sales

Trademe are being told to levy 10% and pay it to the ATO, I guess they will then just whack is on the success fee for sales to OZ based customers,

Do you have to specify whether an item is for sale in OZ specifically on TM?

Geektastic

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#1901313 15-Nov-2017 14:32

How about these costs

Import entry transaction fee (IETF) – NZ$29.26
Biosecurity levy – NZ$19.98

Can we look forward to those being added to every $2 purchase as well?

kingjj

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#1901317 15-Nov-2017 14:45

Admittedly I've only skim read the article but by my understanding the retailer will be expected the collect the GST at time of purchase so no need for inspection/admin fees at the border? Much like Steam etc do now. I imagine most of the big retailers/market places will be on board, but I'm sure there will be smaller ones that will happily ignore it for those bargain hunters who are upset at an extra 30c on their cases.

Senecio

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#1901328 15-Nov-2017 15:00

My last on-line purchase was $190 vs $470 if I had bought the same items in a local retail outlet. It will take a lot more than GST to stop me buying from overseas.

Lastman

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#1901363 15-Nov-2017 15:51

It will likely exclude small turnover traders similar to Australia and normal NZ GST which will help to reduce compliance costs.

mattwnz

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#1901414 15-Nov-2017 18:32

Aren't NZ businesses sending goods to Australia going to be doing this as well? So aren't we just following on from what Australia are doing? I don't have a problem if they are collecting it at the point of sale. But if we have our good delayed by having to pay for it at the border , it is going to be costly and tedious.

surfisup1000

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#1901418 15-Nov-2017 18:58

Sounds like it was a premature statement.... they are looking at the issue only and no decisions have beeen made

Batman

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#1901419 15-Nov-2017 19:05

Yeah we have a lot of premature journalists with premature titles.

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