Ebay Aust vs Amazon GST

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hbngan

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#298430 16-Jun-2022 21:38

Was trying to buy something from ebay Oz and deliver to NZ and when i put in NZ delivery address, I expected Aust GST of 10% to be removed and then NZ GST of 15% at check out to be added

Ebay didnt do this, however Amazon correctly does this

Is this "Std" ebay?? or has the seller set up something incorrectly on their end

I guess if I really want the item, I suck it up, as even with the Aust GST inc, its $NZ100 cheaper than buying it in NZ (inc freight from Oz to NZ)

jpoc

1043 posts

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#2930697 17-Jun-2022 08:47

Amazon can do this as they are a self contained system. Even with marketplace sellers, they know the GST position and can handle it.

Ebay cannot do the same. Many of their sellers are not GST registered so they cannot know whether or not there is any GST to be dropped. I am sure that they could put systems in place for this but then they would have to raise fees to cover the extra costs and sellers would want to refuse to deal with NZ buyers rather than have those raised fees.

Kyanar

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#2930895 17-Jun-2022 13:13

jpoc:

Ebay cannot do the same. Many of their sellers are not GST registered so they cannot know whether or not there is any GST to be dropped. I am sure that they could put systems in place for this but then they would have to raise fees to cover the extra costs and sellers would want to refuse to deal with NZ buyers rather than have those raised fees.

eBay actually can, because it already does - for Australia. As an Online Marketplace, it is required to collect and remit GST on behalf of all merchants who sell through its platform to NZ customers.

hbngan

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#2931052 17-Jun-2022 18:24

The issue is that the list price on ebay already incs Aust GST

eg list price $500 and if delivered in Aust, the seller owes 10% gst GST to the ATO ($454.54 +10% gst 45.45 = $500)

What should happen is when delivered to NZ, its should be zero rated as its exported and the buyer is gst registered then NZ gst of 15% should be applied

ie 454.45+15% $68.18= $522.72

instead this is happening

454.54 X10% Gst X 15% Gst so effectively paying 25% gst - $575

jpoc

1043 posts

Uber Geek

#2931121 17-Jun-2022 19:14

Kyanar:

eBay actually can, because it already does - for Australia. As an Online Marketplace, it is required to collect and remit GST on behalf of all merchants who sell through its platform to NZ customers.

We are not talking about NZ GST. The question is about Aus GST.

Please explain how you think that this can work without incurring costs for ebay and their sellers.

Suppose that you order an item from an Australian ebay seller.

How does ebay know that there is any Australian GST to be removed from the price?

What if the seller is an individual who does not have to charge GST and send money to the government? How does ebay know that?

What about the individual who is a GST registered tradie. How does ebay know which items include GST in the price and which do not? The tradie has some surplus stuff left over from a job so he sells it and GST is in the price. But when he buys a new TV and sells the old one on ebay, there is no GST.

A big company that only ever sells stuff with GST might be easier but how do you differentiate between them and a small company that is not GST registered because they are below the threshold? How does ebay know?

Then we can move on to the matter of fraud. Look at this from the point of view of the Australian tax authorities. They will trust Amazon that when they say they just shiped an item to NZ that it really went there.

How do they know that an ebay trader has really shipped that big smart TV overseas? The Australian authorities have no way of knowing and they will not trust those traders. NZ might be a special case because tax fraud is unlikely but what about items shipped to countries that do not have this tax rule? Consider Bob's Tax Dodge Electronics Supply. Fred down the road orders a TV from Bob to be suppliled tax free. He orders it on ebay with an Indonesian shipping address and ebay take the Aussie GST from the price. Bob shows the ebay paperwork and swears that he shipped the item overseas but Fred just picked it up from the back of the store late one night.

You think that it would be easy to say that you can get Aussie GST off on ebay shipments to NZ but not to other countries? That would probably need legislation and that would almost certainly breach WTO rules and other trade deals that limit your rights to have different tax regimes for exports to different countries.

It works for Amazon because they are monolithic and are generally trusted to not run GST rorts.

Ebay had millions of members in Au and the authorities are unlikely to trust them.

Tzoi

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#2931186 17-Jun-2022 19:45

Did the eBay listing specify that Australian GST was included?

hbngan

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#2931325 18-Jun-2022 11:13

Thanks for all the comments

The price in the listing is the “final” price, (no gst added on to the price if gst registered), if the seller is gst registered, then they must account for the gst to the tax dept

In all cases the tax obligation (income tax/gst) falls on the seller, nothing to do with ebay

That’s why sometimes the tax dept has to do data matches and try and audit the sellers

In the case of OZ-> NZ, if the seller sells for $500 and consumed/delivered in OZ, then they owe gst to the tax dept

If the sale is “exported” then there is no GST owed to tax dept as its zero rated, so effectively extra 10% margin for the seller if the price doesnt change

Anyway for my purchase, the nice seller created a separate listing, lowered the price by 10% (Aust GST amt) but restricted the shipping country to NZ- to stop people from OZ buying (otherwise they would have to account for the GST) and then lose 10% margin

So all good in the end :)