Australia considers lower foreign e-commerce GST threshold
- Dec 14, 2011 | Richard Asquith
The Australian government has agreed to review the current registration threshold for Australian Goods and Sales Tax (‘GST’) for foreign, non-resident online traders selling into Australia.
Currently, the GST registration threshold is AUS$ 1,000 per individual sale. Imposing Australian GST would increase the price to the Australian consumer by 10%. Aside from the loss of tax revenues for the federal government, it also means that Australian resident web traders are at a disadvantage since they must levy and collect the 10% GST on all local sales.
To date, the main block to any change is devising a registration and compliance process for Australian GST that would be cost-effective. The government has stated that anything below AUS$ 100 per sale would be uneconomical.
A new review board has now been established to attempt to calculate an economical limit, and devise an efficient registration and compliance regime.