‘Why Amazon, eBay and ASOS are fighting the government hard on its plans to scrap the GST threshold for online purchases’ – SmartCompany
Emma Koehn says, “Online purchases of less than $1000 made from overseas suppliers will be subject to the goods and services tax (GST) from July 1, but overseas retail giants are now fighting it out over how and when the policy should be implemented.
Global shopping marketplace eBay has said the policy could force it to prevent Australians from buying its foreign sellers, while Amazon is arguing that logistics providers should be responsible for collecting and processing the tax. But some smaller local operators say the specifics of the collection processes don’t matter as much as the policy’s aim.
In August 2015, federal and state government treasurers agreed to scrap the $1000 low-value purchase threshold — which meant small online purchases from overseas companies did not incur the GST — after sustained campaigning from small retailers, which argued the failure to collect the tax placed local businesses at a significant disadvantage to the likes of Amazon.
The government passed legislation for the change in February this year and with the law set to apply from July, retail and business groups have had their say on the rollout of the policy through submissions to the Senate Standing Committee on Economics, which is due to report on the policy next month”.
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