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eBay sellers Told to Include GST
noisymime writes "The Age is running a story on how The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) has requested eBay Australia to enforce the inclusion of the GST on all sales/auctions. Previously this was recommended but not a requirement. Is this reasonable protection for buyers or simply a frustration for everyone? What about all the other sales and auction sites available to Australians?" Moreover, how will this apply to other countries with GSTs - or sales tax?
The GST inclusion on EBay autions is only for people required to be registered for GST. IE: Businesses earning more than 50,000 AUD per annum based in Australia using the Auction site as means of selling. To clarify the issue as to weather or not GST can be added to the final auction price eBay sent out this email to ensure that all people are aware that for goods being sold on eBay those who are required to pay GST include it in the item total/starting price/reserve and not to add it at the end of the aution. Nothing to see here move along...
It has nothing to do with making people charge a tax with their auctions, it's simply a measure to stop people grabbing an extra 10% under the guise of a tax where they may not have actually needed to collect GST.
All this means is that if you are going to involve GST, it has to be part of the final auction price, rather than added to it after the auction ends. And this is good. Adding it on afterwards (unless it is clearly stated on the auction page) is deceptive. ebay received many complaints about this, so they are doing something about it.
Even regular merchants in Australia need to advertise prices **WITH** GST included. I've also lived in Canada and the U.S., and I have to tell you it's nice to buy something and pay the price on the sticker.... not up to 15% more once they punch it into the register and the tax gets calculated.
This warning came from the fact that commercial merchants (of which there are millions) on ebay were advertising without GST, and then adding it on to the final price after the auction when over. Thats pretty misleading from where I stand and perfectly reasonably. This will have no impact on the average Joe because he isn't required to charge GST.
GST is Goods & Services Tax. It is common in many European countries, and as far as I am aware, New Zealand and Canada as well as Australia. Australia is 10%, which is better than the UK which is 17.5%!
In Aus at least, you do not need to charge GST until your turnover exceed $50,000 per year, and GST should only apply to new, not second-hand goods.
What was happening was that people were bidding on items (or using 'buy it now') and then the seller added tax on top. There was no indication that tax was to be levied until after the end of the auction, where the final sale price was 10% higher.
Ebay has basically said, if GST needs to be charged, then the price is inclusive of GST. That way, bidders know exactly what they have to pay, rather than getting hit with something extra at the end.
Sounds fair enough to me.
Are we going to have to start charging tax on purchases at our Yard/Tag/Garage sales?
In Australia that's exactly what you're required by law to do.
No you are very wrong. You are only required to be registered for GST if you are using it as a form of income where it exceeds 50,000 AUD per annum.
If i want to sell my car privatly no GST needs to be paid.
If I sell cars for a living and sell less than $50,000 AUD per annum I will need an ABN but no GST needs to be paid. (Income tax on the profit does though!!)
If I sell lots of cars for a living (more than 50,000 AUD) I need to be registered for GST and pay GST on those cars regardless of source (although I can claim input tax credits).
Seeing as you obviously dont understand the tax system I suggest that you call the ATO or have a read of the publically available information . Personally I found that they are very helpful with phone calls.
Do the following really mean anything? SCSA MCP CCSA CCNA
--I'm not actually after an answer!
Goods and ServicesTax - it is a 10% consumption tax.
This was a dumb article to post on Slashdot - all it is about is the ACCC making sure that consumers don't get ripped off by businesses that eBay to sell things.
Only individuals who have a registered Australian Business Number (ABN) AND who have registered to charge GST (and thus report on quarterly business activity and pay the GST to the tax office) are required (or allowed) to collect the GST. A business is only required to register for the GST if their turnover is inexcess of AUD$50k/year. An ABN holder who turns over less than AUD$50k/year can optionally register for the GST but they don't have to - and it is not legal to force them to do so.
eBay are only being ordered to enforce those WHO ARE registered for the GST to include it in the final sale price. If you are not registered for the GST (or if you're selling a personal item), these changes do not apply to you.
This is to combat deception where a seller would use the GST-exclusive price to outshine their competitors and then whack the GST on the top when payment is due. This is a result of where all prices quoted in Australia must already include the GST by law.
OK, I'll karma whore...
The GST stands for Goods and Services Tax. Basically, the price of anything you buy or pay for in Australia has to include an extra 10%, which the seller then has to give to the tax office. There are a few exceptions, most notably unprocessed food like fruit and vegetables.
Goods and Services Tax Currently set at 10%
Disclaimer: The above comment was made while under the influence of too much coding and not enough sleep.
The costs and hassles of compliance with those taxes are passed on to businesses instead of consumers (although it is the consumer who ultimately pays).
For example, in Iowa, certain bank service charges are taxable (but not all of them!). A service charge on a savings account is not taxable, but a service charge on a checking account is. That's not too bad to start with, but it gets better...
If you were to wire some money from one bank to another, it will cost you a bit to do so. If you pay that fee from your checking account, it's taxable. If you pay it from your savings account, it's not.
Also, we have multiple rates in Iowa. The state rate is 5% (except for electricity or heating oil/gas where it's 2% or 3%). Except for those communities with the local option sales tax where the rate is and additional 1%. Except for those communities with the school option sales tax where the rate is an additional 1%.
Whenever fewer people pay a tax, it gets more complicated to comply and more expensive to enforce.
A fine is a tax you pay for doing wrong and a tax is a fine you pay for doing all right.
"It's yours"
"Here's your $10"
"That's $11"
"WTF?"
"I have to charge G.S.T."
"Then you should have said so"
That's all. If you have to charge G.S.T., then you have to include it in the stated price. Most casual sales don't have to charge G.S.T..
Protoplasm. Quiet Protoplasm. I like quiet protoplasm.
That's completely untrue.
The total GST paid is only 10% on top of the final value of the good.
If I as a business buy a widget for $11 from a supplier then:
-The GST component is $1 which the supplier sends to the tax man
-The supplier gets to keep $10.
-I note that I've paid $1 GST on purchases
If I then sell that widget to you for $33 dollars:
-The GST component is $3, but I have a credit for $1 from above so I send $2 to the taxman.
-I get to keep $31
The final sale price was $33. $3 (2 from me, 1 from my supplier) goes to the taxman which is 10% of the final non-gst amount. No matter how many times it is sold that remains true.
Boffoonery - downloadable Comedy Benefit for Bletchley Park
You'd make less of a fool of yourself if you didn't waffle about subjects that you clearly know nothing about.
These types of activities are specifically excluded from Australian Goods and Services Tax (GST). If you're selling something privately, its not your usual business, etc, etc, then you don't have to provide a tax invoice, collect GST, etc. If you're selling to a business, then that business is required by law to withhold 48.5% of their payment to you in lieu of your providing them with a Tax Invoice and an Australian Business Number (ABN) unless you supply them with a receipt and a copy of the Statement by a supplier (reason for not quoting an ABN to an enterprise) form.
This isn't rocket science, its a standard and accepted way of operating privately within the tax system. I do it every time I provide a one-off service to a business in my capacity as a private individual, and I've never had a problem, nor has anyone come after me for GST.
Tax system here is a goddamn joke.
No, it's not. It actually works pretty well if you RTFM. It's certainly a damn sight better than the old system.
(It's worse for land. You're charged income tax on the money you use to buy the land, stamp duty when you buy, land tax every year by the state government, and land rates by the local council every quarter. Then when you sell the property there's a vendor tax. If you've made any money by renting it out that's more income tax you've got to pay.).
Now you're trying desperately to support a weak argument with a total non sequitur. Property taxes in Australia, particularly the ones you describe, are state matters, and have absolutely nothing to do with the Federal tax system that the article is about.
I find your ideas intriguing and I wish to subscribe to your newsletter.
Methinks the parochial nature of Americans needs to be considered before posting new items. If it doesn't happen in my state, or at a pinch, any of the US States, I don't need to know what it is, don't care what it is, and will certainly not lift a finger to do the 5 seconds research it takes to find out. In fact nothing in the outside world matters one iota, so why are people posting this?????!!!!
Read the article again. The move is not to make people start CHARGING GST, it's to require them to INCLUDE GST in the total price, a law that exists in every physical store in the country. Anybody who isn't required to charge GST (i.e. anybody who isn't making $50,000/year from the business) will remain unchanged. The people who were making over that simply have to say the price is $11.00 from the beginning rather than saying it's $10.00 + GST (the problem being combatted here being that the "+ GST part" was rarely included anywhere but in the fine print) So they're just going to be complying with laws that every other store has to comply with, which I fully support. None of that "$59.95 + tax" stuff, no surprises. We know exactly what it's going to cost when we pull the credit card out because of this.
This really is all much ado about nothing. Ebay requires you to list GST only if you are charging it. Not that you charge GST on everything. Ie, you can't falsely advertise your products as being 10/11ths of the price, which is already illegal here in Australia. If you're selling an old Mickey Mouse watch, and you don't do so for a living, then you don't need to list or charge GST. Basically, this is simply eBay.au codifying what's already law.
Send lawyers, guns, and money!
Not quite. You're not REQUIRED to register your business for GST unless your turnover exceeds $50,000/year (I think it's $100,000 for NPOs). If you do register you are required to charge GST even if your turnover is less than $50,000/annum. The upside is that you can claim the GST you paid, to your suppliers, back and if you paid more than you charged then you get a refund from the tax office.
If your business involves selling second-hand goods (and you're registered for GST), then you are required to charge GST.
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I suppose he's not entitled to the ITC if he didn't pay the tax, but its reasonable to assume that Ebay's invoice to him is "tax included", and so he wants the documentation to claim the ITC.
If Ebay.au "forgot" to levy it and started to, then yes, he'd pay 10% more, but get it back in the ITC (because businesses that collect GST get to claim ITCs on the GST they pay). So, he'd be no worse off (except that the 'old' price, lacking GST, allowed for no ITC and cost him more out of pocket).
But yeah, if Ebay.au "corrected" such an oversight, it would cost all non-businesses more.
You could've hired me.
Methinks that the international nature of the /. audience needs to be considered before posting new items
Pff.. the rest of the world should only post comments that relate to the good old USA maybe? What about if someone posts about VAT? Do all Aussies naturally know about the xth Ammendment?
THANKYOU!
/. readers might be in the same posistion. I kind of figured that Joe Average in Greenbay would simply flick past it. If it doesn't apply to you ignore it, don't whinge about it.
Sometimes I would do anything for mod points
This was exactly my thinking when I submitted the story! The change this article talks about is something that affected myself and I thought that other