Thread: July the 1st 2018 GST On Low Value Imported Goods

Originally Posted by DomAU

It certainly can. The huge spending just created a massive public debt burden that we are saddled with and will affect our economy in the long-term. It also propped up the Australian dollar which helped to kill manufacturing in this country - and that may hurt us long-term as well. Worst of all, when the government undertakes large and rapidly implemented fiscal stimulus, like it did over that period and like it's doing now, it crowds-out private investment and is typically spent on often useless or at least poorly thought-through undertakings that aren't a genuine investment in our collective future (eg. pink batts insulation, poorly thought out infrastructure, cash rebates etc). Government trying to rapidly spend that amount of money, even if they do direct it towards productive investment (not typical) is also generally handled inefficiently and thus we spend more than we should / get less than we should for our money. It's often argued by economists that the net-benefit of fiscal expansionary spending is overall negative to the economy - unless it's very well targeted and invested in infrastructure / long-term assets etc - not just consumption expenditure.

Cheers,

Dom

Yes we went from a nice surplus to a big debt and we have nothing to show for it apart from some pink stuff stuff in some roofs which a lot of the product was imported
I think everyone ageed on them spending to control the gfc impact but it was done very poorly

Originally Posted by Beardy

Yes we went from a nice surplus to a big debt and we have nothing to show for it apart from some pink stuff stuff in some roofs which a lot of the product was imported
I think everyone ageed on them spending to control the gfc impact but it was done very poorly

We also went from a big debt to a much bigger debt, with no pink stuff and no GFC to use as reasons, and the only thing that we have to show for were empty promises.

This thread started by trying to uncover facts about the new GST threshold and associated collection issues. I wonder if the general GST wingers could move to a new thread?

Originally Posted by Chrism3

This thread started by trying to uncover facts about the new GST threshold and associated collection issues. I wonder if the general GST wingers could move to a new thread?

Diplomatically put.

Regards
Paul

This is all very well and good using e-Bay that they got the GST thing sort;
so why in the name of goodness couldn't Amazon do the same thing and still allow us access to goods in the USA.....

Originally Posted by crowie

This is all very well and good using e-Bay that they got the GST thing sort;
so why in the name of goodness couldn't Amazon do the same thing and still allow us access to goods in the USA.....

For the 3rd time. . . . . . . , they don't give a rats about the few percent of folks that want to purchase specialty stuff that's not available on their Aussie site. Instead they use the GST to forcibly direct the majority of Aussies who buy from Amazon because it is Amazon to their Aussie site and in the process can charge "Australian prices" and easily make up the difference.

And that's about the tenth different thing in this thread for at least the third time

Don’t imagine Jeff Bezos cares two hoots about that back water called Australia after being crowned the richest man that’s ever lived with a personal wealth of $150billion.

Jeff Bezos is known for sacrificing profits in favour for growth. It's highly unlikely that he goes for short term gain on the .au site by restricting sales from the .com site. I think it's like what Ian has previously said. It's to make a statement that Amazon doesn't intend to be the world tax collector. Australia may not be a huge market but it's strategic because our neighbors watch to see if the outcome is favourable. First cab off the rank is NZ which wants to do the same thing next December. May be Indonesia or Malaysia vwill follow suit after that. I'm sure Amazon wants to put a halt to that.
.au is simply an independent exercise and I believe they are just calberatibg. We will see price and product change. Its aim is to capture the groceries market not the 2 Bob woodworking spend.

It’s not just about “2 bob woodworking spend”. I have bought a wide range of “stuff” as has my daughter from Amazon US and UK. This is “stuff” that is generally not available in Australia as it has a small market over here.
Lets say Amazon US stocks/sells via its site Widget A and sells 20 million a year world wide but only 10 to Australia. Do you honestly think someone in Australia is going to stock that item to sell on Amazon AU when they can stock items that sell 1000s in Australia per year? They never stocked it before so why would they stock it now to sell though Amazon AU?

If it’s as you say and Jeff Bezos is just interested in “groceries”, then that’s not going to change the fact that an open door to goods that I used to be able to buy is now closed just because the richest man on earth is stubborn/trying to prove a point/ insert your own reason here.

On wood working gear. I wanted an adaptor for a Bosch ROS. Bosch Australia don’t sell it and REFUSE point blank to bring it into Australia. The only place I could find it world wide was on Amazon US and Amazon Uk sites so I bought one. That option is now closed.

Duplicate post

Originally Posted by Lappa

If it’s as you say and Jeff Bezos is just interested in “groceries”, then that’s not going to change the fact that an open door to goods that I used to be able to buy is now closed just because the richest man on earth is stubborn/trying to prove a point/ insert your own reason here.

He's not stubborn or trying to prove a point. He is laying the groundwork for his upcoming fight with similar overseas initiatives which are in the pipeline, the most significant one being that of the European Union, which is scheduled to take effect from 2021. (Productivity Commission Inquiry Report Overview & Recommendation)

Hence we are really small fry and the first victim in this coming tax war.

Peter.

What makes him so special (apart from being worth $150 billion) that he doesn’t have to pay tax or collect tax like any other business?

Donning tin foil hat I put this thought forward. Amazon do not want to get involved in collecting tax for any government because as soon as they do the government will start to assemble information on the company they have not got now and be able to use that information as a lever in further tax negotiations and there is no way they want that to happen. In the future I can see where these sort of companies such as Google, Apple, Ebay etc become subject to governments exchanging information they gather to build a bigger picture and it may be happening now of course. They are the biggest tax dodgers the world has ever seen and if they are to be brought to heel international cooperation is most probably needed.