eBay to Collect GST Tax on Australian Shipments
Reading Time: 1 minute eBay announced they will start to collect Australian Goods and Services Tax (GST) on all orders originating outside Australia and destined to Australian buyers.
New laws regarding GST are going into effect in Australia on July 1, 2018. Australian GST is a tax of 10% on most goods and services sold or consumed in Australia, and today, it already applies to high-value goods costing greater than AU $1,000.
Under the new laws, eBay is responsible for collecting GST on low-value imports and paying it to the Australian Government.
READ MORE: Australian Government Delay GST Ruling for eCommerce Sellers
In order to comply with these obligations, as of July 1st, 2018, eBay will begin collecting GST from Australian buyers for items purchased from outside of Australia with a value of less than AU $1,000 on behalf of the Australian Tax Office.
If an item being sold is located outside of Australia, after July 1st, the item’s price may appear 10% higher to prospective buyers located in Australia as a result of the tax being applied.
The GST will be added to the buyer’s order at checkout.
READ MORE: Amazon to Block Australians from U.S. and UK Marketplaces
Sellers who sell to Australian buyers will continue to receive the full payment for their orders (item price + shipping and/or handling costs).
They don’t need to register with any Australian tax authorities, or take any action at all.
For more information, sellers can read Australia’s 2018 Winter Seller Update, or visit the Australian Taxation Office website.
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Richard Meldner
Richard is co-founder of eSeller365. He has over 17 years of experience on eBay which includes tens of thousands of sales to buyers in over 100 countries and even has experience with eBay’s VeRO program enforcing intellectual property rights for a former employer. And for about two years Richard sold products on Amazon using Amazon FBA in the US.
To “relax” from the daily business grind, for a few weekends a year, he also works for IMSA as a professional race official.
Hi I was wondering if you could answer my query please …
I purchased a curio cabinet on ebay yesterday 27th Feb 2019 from Florida in the US
When I got to the check out I was charged the gst,postage and for the cabinet and I paid the amount ebay had on the checkout…
I checked my account later and I was $12 short in my balance
I rang my bank and was told pay pal had taken it.
I contacted them and they said their conversion rates were different to ebays
The amount at the ebay check out should have been what I paid
So is ebay at fault for not having conversion rates the same as pay pal
The way I look at it is what the checkout amount said is what I should of only paid for
How can pay pal take more when I never authorised it
Can Someone please answer this that is the first time I had shopped internationally
You need to contact eBay to discuss this. My assumptions is that since the base currency for the transaction is in US Dollars (being a US seller with a US listing), PayPal charges the rate in your currency that is necessary to submit to eBay in US Dollars the amount due. There can be currency fluctuations and that could account for some differences, but $12 seems like a lot.
I would really contact eBay and discuss this with them. I think they might be the better contact for this question.
Richard