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

Originally Posted by Lappa

The problem is that there’s less and less Australian vendors attending shows. Got an email from a Carbatec saying they won’t be there, but if I go to their shop on the days the show is on, I’ll save 10%..

Originally Posted by DomAU

That's a bit crap. Also, in effect, not going to the show and then competing for your attendance!

Now what really worries me about this is that the WWW shows have been taken over by a former Carbatec executive and now Carbatec is not only not going to the show but working against it.

Originally Posted by DomAU

That's a bit crap. Also, in effect, not going to the show and then competing for your attendance!

The problem is that trade shows of whatever description are run as a money making ventures and charge big money for a business to attend
If they are losing a lot of money doing so why bother being there? They already have a strong market presence so the advantages to them are minimal

I hear that Carbatec had decided 2 years ago that they were pulling out of the shows as of this year. That is long before the new owner was in town.

Somehow I don't see this as actively working against the show. Anyone with half a brain (and C'tec have abundantly demonstrated that is the case) would realise that there is plenty of time to go to the show at Rosehill, and then drive an almighty 3.4km to Carbatec to pick up some pre-ordered stuff.

I get what you're saying Doug, but I don't think it's the case.

Originally Posted by DomAU

I actually have a credit card with zero international transaction fees or conversion fees so I get the inter-bank exchange rate on all overseas purchases

What card's that then? What's the inter-bank exchange rate? In my experience all the banks have different exchange rates, and for large currency purchases none of them are as good as can be got elsewhere.

Originally Posted by aldav

for large currency purchases none of them are as good as can be got elsewhere.

I've always used Forex for that ($2k+).

Originally Posted by Beardy

The problem is that trade shows of whatever description are run as a money making ventures and charge big money for a business to attend
If they are losing a lot of money doing so why bother being there? They already have a strong market presence so the advantages to them are minimal

The TWWW shows business model is definitely flawed. Impressive Exhibitions tried to run it the same way they run their other show, The Bridal Expo.

They charge the exhibitors a large site fee and they attend expecting to be able to sell a lot of product to the masses of attendees. The attendees pay an entry fee so they expect to get a better deal than they can get at the exhibitor's regular retail outlet.

This business model works for their Bridal Expo because women who is getting married in the next 12 months they will go to anything "bridal" and they have a budget of several thousand to spend for the service, reception, honeymoon, clothing flowers etc. But best of all for the exhibitors, they get a whole new crop of brides each year.

With the Wood shows each attendee has a smaller budget and there are fewer of us and the real kicker is that it is substantially the same people each year - a few new faces and a few others drop off, but substantially the same people. The organizers do not seem to have grasped the basic difference so they don't think it matters if they ostracise us or move their event onto the day that has had another woodwork event running on it for 20 years. they just think that like the bridal expos more woodies will turn up.

Yes, I've always used OFX (previously Ozforex). Small fee and better rate. It's only a problem if you need to bring foreign currency back into the country when you're stuck with it going through one of the big 4 or Citibank. Unless you bank with one of them you won't get any statement of what the fees were or what the exchange rate was, just living up to their reputation I guess.

Ahh, yes Citibank. The organisation that has an arrangement with an institution that used to be government owned. The one that deducts US $25 in the process of transfer of funds. Bank will claim that must have been charged by the receiving bank, when in fact it is levied as a result of commercial arrangements between entities. Just sayin’

Originally Posted by aldav

What card's that then? What's the inter-bank exchange rate? In my experience all the banks have different exchange rates, and for large currency purchases none of them are as good as can be got elsewhere.

It's a Bankwest card. I check the interbank rate on this site https://www.hifx.com.au/marketwatch.aspx and get almost exactly this rate when i run the numbers after a purchase and that's down to when the transaction was processed .

Cheers, Dom

Dom, without wishing to pry, are those cards only available to BankWest mortgage customers? FO & MYOB is a legitimate answer. The rates appear to be 0.012 better on a €2000 transfer than OFX on the Euro atm (pretty significant) depending on which of those columns is "the one we use".

This may have been mentioned before but I cannot find if it has.

I've bought a few items on ebay since July 1 but they have been all from real Australian suppliers and only just made an OS purchase earlier today for a whopping $18.

When I read my ebay receipt it said $18 for the said item and $1.80 to another PayPal customer which is "eBay Australia & New Zealand Pty Limited" - no mention of GST anywhere. To see the transaction details I had to go into my PayPal account and only there does it show a separate payment for something called a GST
BUT
It does not link the GST payment it to any other transaction record, my name and any other ID like an address is not on the transaction and it even says - no shipping address provided - for the GST I suppose.
So I have not paid GST to the ATO, all I have done is paid Ebay/Aust a 10% surcharge - and assume it goes to the ATO.

So if I get called up by the ATO about it (which a really doubt but suppose I do), i have no real proof I paid any GST to them - I just paid something to Ebay/Aust called GST on for about the same time I bought something worth 10 x the item marked in my records as GST. Maybe that's all they require.

Now I am not paranoid enough to lose sleep that the ATO are going to chase me up about this or anyone else either. This smells exactly like I suspected they are just picking off the big players for minimal effort. Their policing of this will be bovine excrement to zero.

BobL, agreed. I was doing some purchases for the shop this week.

10% paid to eBay on them, but no sign of a tax invoice.... Grrrr. Complicates my tax! Grrrr.

I'd reckon eBay are going to skim THE LOT. Remit it to the ATO? Hahahaha!!!!¡

Originally Posted by woodPixel

BobL, agreed. I was doing some purchases for the shop this week.

10% paid to eBay on them, but no sign of a tax invoice.... Grrrr. Complicates my tax! Grrrr.

I'd reckon eBay are going to skim THE LOT. Remit it to the ATO? Hahahaha!!!!¡

i want to see what is printed on the package when it arrives, perhaps some have got their post ply 1 orders already?

I use my Citibank plus master debit card for all my overseas purchases. I get the MasterCard exchange rate and no transaction or processing fees.