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Australia considers lower foreign e-commerce GST threshold

  • Dec 14, 2011 | Richard Asquith

Australia considers lower foreign e-commerce GST threshold

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.


VP Global Indirect Tax
Richard Asquith
VP Global Indirect Tax Richard Asquith
Richard Asquith is the former VP Global Indirect Tax at Avalara