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eBay sellers Told to Include GST

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the what-about-sales-tax dept.

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?

5 of 271 comments (clear)

  1. Make them include postage! by grahamsz · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Or at least have an option so you can display search results as total price including postage.

    I'm so sick of seeing "bargains" on ebay which are $1 with $16 postage.

    Personally i'd love it if they had a filter for "Items which start at 1c with no reserve" so that i can filter out all the businesses who simply retail on ebay.

    1. Re:Make them include postage! by lithiumfox · · Score: 4, Interesting

      There is an option on ebay that allows you to see shipping price on the main listing page along with the selling prices. If an item that actually sells for 12 dollars ebay and the shipping is 3 dollars, some people will list it that way. Others will list it as 1 dollar for the item and 14 dollars for shipping, thats because ebay does not charge you fees on shipping, but on the item alone. Sellers save a lot of money on seller fees doing this. A deal on ebay is not just the cost of the item, but the item + shipping, if not you can get just get it somewhere else.

  2. Sounds like a good idea to me by mjtg · · Score: 3, Interesting

    "Some eBay buyers reported that they had been charged an additional 10 per cent on top of their winning bid or 'Buy It Now' price without having been properly alerted beforehand of the additional charge".

    Sounds like this requirement is a good idea.

    As an Aussie, I remember once buying a shirt in a shop in California. When I got to the checkout, I was charged for state tax on top of the price that was on the ticket. I didn't complain, because I realised at the time that that's how things are done in California.

    In Australia, however, it is universally assumed that advertised prices include all taxes. That's how things are done here. For an Australian website to advertise prices otherwise would be, IMHO, misleading.

    Yes, there are going to be lots of items that don't attract GST, so fine GST should not be charged on them. And yes, people outside Australia don't have to pay any GST. Fine. The simple solution is to require any sales that are subject to GST to have a note alongside the price sayng "plus 10% GST to Australian shipping addresses" or something. Easy.

  3. eBay are still Tax Cheats by B747SP · · Score: 4, Interesting
    What I find really interesting about this little hoo-haa is that, whilst eBay are pretending to be good citizen and making sure that buyers and sellers do The Right Thing(tm) with respect to Australian Goods and Services Tax (GST), they're cheating the Australian Government out of massive amounts of tax revenue at the same time.

    Take an example: I sold an item on ebay.com.au recently. I'm an Australian tax paying Australian citizen living in Australia, I used the services of the Australian eBay subsidiary to sell an item to another Australian citizen/resident/taxpayer, made the financial dealing in Australian dollars between Australian banks. Following the deal, eBay Australia sent me an invoice for services rendered, a fee in Australian dollars which they require to be paid to my choice of an Australian bank account or by mailing a cheque or money order to an Australian address.

    So I ask for an Australian Tax Invoice in accordance with Australian law. It seemed a reasonable request to me.

    Now, all of a sudden, eBay are dancing around alternating between calling themselves "eBay Inc.", an American company, and "eBay AG" (what is that, Swiss, or German or something). They won't answer communications about Australian tax, their 'support' monkeys just hit the 'random diversion' button and send off irrelevant "Thank-you for contacting eBay support, here's some information about... a Duck" type replies.

    I've had it with the fockers, after this little carry on, I'm gonna start whingeing at the tax office and the consumer whassname!

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  4. Re:Or put another way... by jayloden · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Right, that's just us Americans. Everyone else on the planet knows everything about everything so would never need clarification on anything. Ever.