There will be a General Election before Jul 2017, I wonder where the Labor party stands. Will they support Hockey or use these new rules as a door opener to get back into Govt".
Why would companies voluntarily register to do something that they don't bother doing now just to please the ATO?
They wouldn't, and most won't.
Interesting piece about it here if anyone's still interested (though you'd be forgiven if you've already recognised it as meaningless and moved on with your life...)
I just bought used lens on ebay from UK, it was just a tad over AU$1000...
GST, customs declaration duties etc. were close to $200 !!!
Now, if anything below $1k must attract all those expeses, I am afraid online overseas purchases will seriously slow down.. and the local prices wil go up.
Ouch! I've been caught like that too. Memo to self: remember that GST is calculated on cost of item+customs duties (determined by applicable tariff rate)+shipping and insurance.
I can only see this working with large well run organisations who for whatever reason decide to voluntarily agree to an onerous system that will immediately make them less competitive than their competitors.
Sounds like a good plan for them !
But the ATO has a huge problem just getting paid the GST collected by small Australian businesses who have cashflow and administrative management problems (I seem to recall something like 30% of small businesses have problems) - do they really think they can do better than here on a voluntary basis with small foreign owned and run businesses ?!
The instant its enforced for Australia - every other country will also want to hold their hand out and then we will have every small business around the world having to manage, collect and remit (on the appropriate form) their VAT, GST . . . taxes for 100s for countries at different rates on different classes of goods in different currencies !!
Thats going to work - not.
I think the onus will end up being on the importer. Just another administrative burden on ordinary taxpayers.
So every time I get my $5-10 widget from China in its own envelope I will have to fill out a form and lodge my 50c payment.
Cant wait for this gross inefficiency at its highest.
I'd like to be a fly on the wall when this plays out in overseas corporate
boardrooms.
Lets see Joe and his entourage will fly first class and stay in first class hotels in these countries.
In the boardroom meeting he will announce that Aussie companies are complaining that your company is selling too cheap in Australia. We would like you to put up your prices by 10% to create a level playing field and every 3 months forward that extra money to my Government.
Every 2 years we would like to send a team of accountants to audit your books to make sure you are compliant or else we will issue you with heavy fines until you are compliant.
This is going to go down really well, I can see the board of directors laughing their heads off as they kick Joe and his mob out the door.
