You'll be paying 10% GST on all online purchases by 2017

[sincity]

Bad news for fans of shopping online – from July 1, 2017, all overseas goods and services purchases will be subjected to GST, with the minimum threshold dropping from $1,000 to $0.

The move will impact all purchases from international retailers like Amazon, Etsy and Book Depository, which the government claims will create a more level playing field for local retailers.

This decision follows moves to add GST to digital services like Netflix and Steam, which was announced back in May.

The plan to make a plan

While the treasurers have agreed to drop the threshold to $0, there's no official word yet on how the government will actually enforce the expanded tax, nor how much it will actually cost to implement.

Federal treasurer Joe Hockey has confirmed that tax officials will be visiting international companies like Amazon to encourage them to register for GST.

According to News, modelling from the Retail Council claims that the move to drop the GST threshold should see an addition of $1 billion in the first year.

The question is how much of the extra charges will be passed on to consumers.

[RedBaird]

Australia:  "Joe Hockey was sworn in as Treasurer on 18 September 2013."  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe_Hockey

 

Some countries have GST:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goods_and_Services_Tax

 

The US does not, but most states do have sales tax and some are enforcing it on goods bought outside their state and shipped in, especially for online sales.