International Transformers retails and Australian GST. What retailers are doing.

[Jazzman]

I don't know if this has already been mentioned, but I was curious what the situation with forwarding items from Amazon via Shopmate was and I contacted AusPost. They gave me the following answer:
"GST will be payable on:
- The value of the item(s) you are shipping into Australia via ShopMate including any shipping fees or local taxes paid to the USA retailer (i.e how much you paid to purchase and ship the item)
-The value of the ShopMate shipping and service fee (including Extra Cover if applicable)

In basic terms, if the item is being delivered from outside Australia, anything you pay to purchase and ship the package will attract GST, as per the legislation."

What I don't get is why would we pay GST on the American domestic shipping to the Shopmate warehouse? An even more bitter pill to take is paying GST on second hand items!

[DarkHyren]

Well shopmate are auspost and auspost are paid by the au government, so it's all part of the same scam.
As such they treat all items that come into your US mailing address as a "new item being imported to avoid paying for it at aussie retail prices", even when it's something second hand.
That, and shopmates already high prices, are good enough reasons to avoid the service in my opinion.

Here's some more info for everyone.
As my accountant explained it to me, anything purchased through a digital platform such as amazon or ebay has to have all tax included in the final price you pay if shipped directly to australia.
So anything that an ebay seller sends to you can not be taxed on this end because the platform (ebay) is supposed to pay the australian government the taxes on that item due to collecting it from you in the final cost.
Expect to see a section labelled "taxes" during final checkout when purchasing on ebay after june 30th.

Now if the items are sent to a location in america/japan/etc (such as a friends place or other shipping forwarder) then forwarded to you as merchandise you will pay tax at the post office when it arrives here.
The exception to this is if the shipper has collected tax on the australian governments behalf, I know tenso (a japanese shipping forwarder) has stated that they are collecting the taxes, so you'd be paying those when you pay tenso their fees.

If however the items are sent to you as gift (either from a friend or from a shipping forwarder that isnt collecting taxes) you should not pay any taxes.
Also when sending as a gift it can help to have, for example, "used toys" in the description to further show that this is not an item that can be bought in australian retail outlets (the thing that this tax is supposedly in place to combat).
If the forwarder/retailer has charged you taxes in the final price then it doesnt matter if the customs form says merchandise or gift.

Apologies for the wall of text but hopefully this information is useful and accurate (which I assume it is coming from an accountant).

[Jazzman]

Apologies for the wall of text but hopefully this information is useful and accurate (which I assume it is coming from an accountant).

All accurate, but Shopmate isn't Auspost - It's Singapore Post, contracted by Auspost... Figures

[reillyd]

I would advise using a reshipper that allows you to fill in your own customs declaration. Mine has an extra service to remove all price tags, sale invoices, and other sales information. but then you're not covered with insurance, so it's a risk

[Jazzman]

I would advise using a reshipper that allows you to fill in your own customs declaration. Mine has an extra service to remove all price tags, sale invoices, and other sales information. but then you're not covered with insurance, so it's a risk

You'll end up needing to provide proof of the original invoice if questioned.

[reillyd]

You'll end up needing to provide proof of the original invoice if questioned.

In five years it's never been a problem. Particularly with high priced misb G1 (>1000) items that look a little banged up. They've been opened and inspected before... but it is still risky if your item were to go astray, because you can't claim insurance. So I always courier with tracking (and courier items seem to be inspected more often by customs)

[hYpNoS]

Amiami sent me an email

Dear Customer,

Thank you for shopping at our store.

This is a notification email for our Australian customers regarding the changes to the import procedures for Australia, starting on July 1st 2018.

According to the recent changes to the import procedures for your country, for any orders from our store that is invoiced after July 1st, you will be required to pay an additional GST tax of 10% of the total purchased value.

- Affected orders
This applies for all orders with a total merchandise value below 1000 AUD.

*Any currency calculations related to the GST tax, will be calculated based on the current exchange rate according to the link below when the order is invoice.
https://www.rba.gov.au/statistics/fr...nge-rates.html

- GST tax calculation
GST tax = 10% of (total merchandise price + shipping cost)

*The GST tax will be written in your invoices starting from July 1st.

We apologize for the inconvenience and thank you for your understanding.

Sincerely,
AmiAmi

I managed to get most of what I want out of them anyway, now I need to hear from mandarake, anyone asked?

[Autocon]

So if someone sends you something like a gift through the post will you have to pay gst?

[Shirokaze]

Amiami sent me an email
I managed to get most of what I want out of them anyway, now I need to hear from mandarake, anyone asked?

I'm pretty upset about Amiami, I spend thousands there a year and have about 6 months of outstanding pre-orders. Going to have to find a store that's not buying into our government's crap sending more than $75,000 worth of goods to Australia every year.
Honestly I'm surprised that so many stores have decided to abide. I mean, shipping in plain packaging without an invoice attached would have been far easier than sorting out their systems and filling an Australian tax return.

[Bato]

While the current system is crap, you can't blame retailers for abiding to current import laws. Keep in mind than most other countries already impose duty fees on top of GST/VAT, so not only you pay more, but your package is also delayed while customs deal with it.

As far as I'm concerned, even with the extra 10% tacked on, most of the prices are still way more competitive than the Australian equivalent. If you can't absorb a 10% difference between the preorder and the final invoice, buying in a foreign currency is probably not a good idea either...