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New GST rules for on line shopping


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Has anyone a clear understanding of how these new rules work? Plenty of results on a search eg

https://www.westpac.co.nz/rednews/business/how-new-gst-rules-could-affect-your-online-shopping-bill/

but still not crystal clear.

My impression for items up to $1000

1. The big guys eg Amazon, Alibaba, Ebay etc will be GST registered and charge GST at source so nothing else to pay?

2. If the seller is not GST registered and the goods attract less than $60 gst & duty, then there is still no charge. Over this and the old rules apply and you will pay gst, maybe duty and the associated clearance fees.

3. If you use the NZ Post Youshop mailing service not sure if large retailers would charge GST?

 

I just brought some Jabsco stuff in from Defender, had miscalculated the landed value which was just over NZD$400 so copped the charges. Still alot cheaper than buying from Lustys.

 

Interested to hear other peoples experiences

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Any entity who now sells small goods under $1000 into NZ needs to collect GST at source. (Some goods are exempt from GST eg fine metals. So if the entity only sells fine metals they are exempt from registering). If you're goods are over $1000 then you can choose not to register and nzcs will use the current process to collect duty and gst.

 

The $60 is what the rules were until Dec 1st. That's now gone.

 

NZPost YouShop will now charge and collect GST on your shipment.

 

Shippers are required to fill in paperwork which verifies that the GST has been collected at source. I guess that parcels which show up in NZ without this proof will be going through another route and the intended owner will still get charged. Worst case they could return to sender? This part of the process isn't clear, I guess it's going to take a while to see how this bit is going to work.

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thanks for comments CD.

I have noted that IRD only requires businesses with a turnover of goods going to NZ exceeding $60k pa to be registered and collect GST. There are alot of specialist suppliers who would not reach this threshold, or not be interested in registering.

So per your last paragraph it is not clear how goods of a value of less than $1000 that have not had GST charged and are sent directly to NZ ie not via Youshop, will be handled. It appears reading between the lines these may not be charged GST as none of the IRD and Customs notices specifically address this. 

What is clear is that goods $400-1000 with GST collected by the overseas supplier will actually cost less than under the old system as there will no longer be the clearance fees.

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The system is crap and designed to keep incompetents employed. I've been buying specialised goods from ebay for years. Now ebay charges you GST and import fees. I don't have a problem with that. I don't buy there for price, its because you can't get them here.

 

But now, even though ebay is doing all the work for them, customs hold up every item while they post me a form to tell them who I am and charge me another few dollars for the privilege. It's doubled the amount of time it takes to get stuff from overseas.

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I understand youshop will collect GST from you even though the seller is not registered. It's not worth their time to vet every transaction so they will charge all. Remember youshop is government owned.

 

But as above, NZ customs will still inflict their incompetence on you

 

I've just been through the wringer with them on behalf of a client whereby customs owned him close to half a million dollars GST on a boat that had got paid on import but was sent back. The rules are clear and the client totally qualified. But it took close to 6 months to get the money. You never got to speak to the same Wally/Doris twice and every time you were sure you had sent them everything they needed, they came up with something else.

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Zozza, you are showing your age, the Business Round Table does not exist anymore.

 

LOL  :thumbup:  Indeed.

 

Those tax dodging white collar lot then.  You know who I mean.

 

Havent ebay and amazon been charging tax at checkout for a while...or perhaps just on goods of a certain value.

 

Anyway, this could quickly escalate into a political dog fight - so if Matt is reading, I promise I won't retort when good old Armchair comes in off the long run bowling bouncers!

 

Cheers

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