Quote:
Originally Posted by dikman
Dilsh, once upon a time imported items under $1000 were GST free, but a certain Mr. Harvey Norman got upset by it, claimed it was affecting his sales (!) and lobbied the government to change the rules. Bear in mind many of the items he was complaining about weren't sold by his company and were often relatively low-priced items, but that didn't make any difference.
As a result overseas companies are now supposed to collect the GST on the government's behalf and then forward it to the government.  Paypal/ebay does, somehow they even convinced Aliexpress to do it (although who knows how much GST they forward to the government  ).
In my experience US companies don't do it and sometimes it will be collected by the shipping company here (UPS?) but if items are of moderate value they seem to get through.
Large value items appear to attract the attention of the authorities so you get stung. |
Oh right. How interesting and very annoying at the same time.
I guess that is the priviledge we pay for living in the best country in the world. I was in Cuba a few years ago before Obama lifted the embargo and decided that I would try not to complain about the ludicrous taxes we pay as our country is pretty cool.
Thanks for the insight.
Kind regards,
Dilshan