$1000 Import Threshold 2017 Idiotion

[queequeg]

I have an interview soon with the ATO to be published on BNA to share answers.

There is no processing fee, so an eligible dealer just adds and collects GST. If there is an added transaction fee by the retailer, is is probably frustration as they have added admin for GST compliance so it is to cover there overheads and probably penny pincing.

Overseas retailers under $75K in sales to Australia don’t have to add / collect GST so this would be legally GST free.

SO, with the Threshold dropping from $1000 to $0, at what point does the Customs Processing Fee kick in? At the moment, it applies for anything over the low value threshold.

[Warin]

I have an interview soon with the ATO to be published on BNA to share answers.

There is no processing fee, so an eligible dealer just adds and collects GST. If there is an added transaction fee by the retailer, is is probably frustration as they have added admin for GST compliance so it is to cover there overheads and probably penny pincing.

Overseas retailers under $75K in sales to Australia don’t have to add / collect GST so this would be legally GST free.

SO, with the Threshold dropping from $1000 to $0, at what point does the Customs Processing Fee kick in? At the moment, it applies for anything over the low value threshold.

The ATO may not know what other departments are considering... the Government is a many headed beast.

"The Department of Home Affairs proposal is to add a fee to all incoming goods to to balance the bio-security budget." So it might be a quarantine fee rather than a customs fee ...

[queequeg]

I have an interview soon with the ATO to be published on BNA to share answers.

There is no processing fee, so an eligible dealer just adds and collects GST. If there is an added transaction fee by the retailer, is is probably frustration as they have added admin for GST compliance so it is to cover there overheads and probably penny pincing.

Overseas retailers under $75K in sales to Australia don’t have to add / collect GST so this would be legally GST free.

SO, with the Threshold dropping from $1000 to $0, at what point does the Customs Processing Fee kick in? At the moment, it applies for anything over the low value threshold.

The ATO may not know what other departments are considering... the Government is a many headed beast.

"The Department of Home Affairs proposal is to add a fee to all incoming goods to to balance the bio-security budget." So it might be a quarantine fee rather than a customs fee ...

Actually, I just found the answer:-

http://www.homeaffairs.gov.au/busi/carg ... taxes/low-

From 1 July 2018, the Goods and Services Tax (GST) will apply to overseas sales of low value goods to consumers in Australia, where the goods have a customs value of less than or equal to AUD1,000. The AUD1,000 thresholds for GST, duty and reporting at the border will remain.

For tax purposes these are treated as domestic sales and not importations.

There will be no changes to GST collection at the border for low value goods.
There will be no changes to border clearance processes.

If I read it correctly, if you are buying from someone who is sending to Australia and is registered for GST, there will no doubt be something on the invoice to indicate that. If not, your guess is as good as mine as to whether you'll get invoiced for the GST, but o nthe surface it does appear that anyone not registered for GST will still get things through GST free if it is under $1000.

[MichaelB]

Still confused as to what gets charged where and by who and what for.

Meh.

At the end of the day, the OS sources stuff will still be heaps cheaper.

[queequeg]

Still confused as to what gets charged where and by who and what for.

Meh.

At the end of the day, the OS sources stuff will still be heaps cheaper.

As far as I can tell, they full well know that due to the millions of low value parcels coming in, if they attempt to stop them all for customs processing, the entire system will fall in a heap and it will never recover. That is customs.

On the other side, the ATO wants to capture some of the low value pool, so they are forcing big overseas online retailers to collect the GST for them. That means the parcels still arrive in Australia under the $1000 threshold, but in theory have already had tax paid on them at the point of sale. Customs is saying that they won't be doing any extra work for the ATO (tell 'em they're dreaming!). Customs will just treat all low value parcels as though they are domestic parcels and will send them straight through, so no customs processing or added costs.

Then another group, what used to be called AQIS, and is now part of the Department of Agriculture and Water resources, wants a $5 processing fee added to every incoming low value parcel to pay for biosecurity screening, which has nothing to do with Customs at all.

[MichaelB]

Thanks Queequeg. That makes more sense. Still doesn't make a material difference compared to local prices though.

Is the 10% GST a definite goer ? I musta missed that somewhere

[AUbicycles]

Hi queequeg. this is where I have been awaiting details and I am interested how a GST paid item is marked.

For example, if an overseas retailer is registered for GST but an item is over $1000 this means that GST is collected and shouldn't be collected again at the border - what signifies or defines that partner. Wiggle is a perfect examples at they ship a lot of lower value items but also wheelsets or bikes that are over.

If a retailer is responsible for GST on just the $0 - $1000 purchases, this gets tricky because of currency fluctuations and also because Australian customs add the shipping cost to their calculation.

Otherwise, the approach appears to try and avoid the processing the millions of low value items which will stall the entire system immediately

[Patt0]

There is a cost effective way to collect tax and customs on 99% of inbound parcels? Who wants me to let the cat out of the bag?