I think there
SHOULD be
NEEDS to be
Eventually,
MUST be
With the year by year shift in sales ratio, in the ON-LINE favour - on-line sales will EVENTUALLY play HAVOC with GST receipts - though how this would be DONE is the big problem
Here's MY solution
Put a 12.5% GST ( ... come on, it's affordable) on all off-shore purchases - and pay the, say, American vendor the 2.5% extra as a commission for collection
Non-compliance ( ... though why they would ?) would result in a ban under tax law from trading with an Australian customer base
PLUS - it would give a BOOST - albeit small - to Australian businesses and employment
Australian consumers have avoided the GST on goods valued at $6.2 billion shipped here through the mail last year, a gain of 16 per cent.That is likely to further stoke the anger of local retailers who are demanding the government allows them to compete on a level playing field. The amount involved is just over 2 per cent of all retail sales.
Figures released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics on Monday estimated for the first time the value of goods bought by local shoppers from overseas online stores, where any deal under the value of $1000 is not charged GST
The ABS has admitted in a new briefing paper that a large number of parcels imported under the low value threshold (LVT) of $1000 were flooding into Australia and
not at present included in the macro-economic accounts.''The ABS estimates the value of goods imported under the LVT which are not currently included in the macro-economic accounts was $5.375 billion for 2010-11 and $6.226 billion for 2011-12.''
This represents
a 15.8 per cent growth in the value of packages valued below $1000 coming into the country.
If GST was successfully charged on the more than $6 billion of goods it could raise as much as $600 million for empty government coffers.
It comes at a time when the federal budget is under increasing strain because of a revenue shortfall.
The ABS figures will fuel the anger of retailers struggling in the midst of a protracted downturn in consumer spending while trying to compete with overseas sites that don't charge GST.
They have been fuming over the GST-free threshold for years and have run a heated campaign demanding the government lower the threshold or end it.
In 2011, retailers' hopes the threshold would be lowered or scrapped were dashed when the Productivity Commission's final report on the state of the retail sector stopped short of recommending the government drop the $1000 GST-free threshold on goods bought from overseas websites by Australian shoppers.
It came down to cost.
The report found lowering the threshold to $20 would raise more than $550 million in tax revenue but the cost of processing under the present system would escalate to more than $2 billion, more than three times the additional revenue.The ABS has estimated Australian consumers bought $4.5 billion of goods online from domestic retailers in 2011-12 as well as $6.226 billion from overseas sites. The figures do not include money spent on overseas holidays or goods bought from overseas and delivered online, such as
music, movies, ebooks and mobile appshttp://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/federal-election-2013/web-sales-worth-62b...
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