1. Home
  2. Electronics Down Under
  3. Whingeing retail billionaires and the 10% GST

Whingeing retail billionaires and the 10% GST

Whingeing retail billionaires and the 10% GST

I must have taken an extra dose of grumpy old man pills this morning, as I just read:

formatting link

Fury at online GST loophole Mathew Murphy December 20, 2010

RETAIL heavyweights have attacked a government inquiry into the industry as a further sign of inaction, saying GST and duty loopholes favouring overseas retailers are ''lunacy''.

The retail billionaires Solomon Lew and Gerry Harvey yesterday revealed they are considering mounting a campaign against the government over what they claim is an uneven playing field. Under existing tax arrangements, overseas retailers are able to offer purchases under $1000 online without attaching GST.

========================

Well, in my "Fury" of reading what these billionaires are complaining about, I decided to shoot off a letter to the editor of the herald-sun Melbourne this morning. I do ramble on about a few loosely linked subjects that have been frustrating me recently, but my anger is directed mainly at retail billionaire Gerry Harvey, and this 10% GST.

============ To heraldsun.com.au

Gerry Harvey (Harvey Norman) says he is loosing money because people are shopping on line from overseas, in order to save the 10% GST. Wrong Gerry. It is not about the 10%. It is about greed. Why pay sometimes two to three times the price here, when you can get it from the US or China, for a third of the price. Retailers simply have to be more competitive.

And Australia Post is going broke because ordinary mail is being overtaken by email. What about all the packages that are being delivered from overseas that Gerry Harvey keeps telling us about. You can't have it both ways.

And why do I have to line up in a queue to post a yellow bag that won't fit into the toy timber yellow box out the front of the Post Office. I feel like getting at it with a small carpenters saw, and cutting the slot out so that it will fit more than just a letter.

On the 22nd of November, Australia Post hit us with a $9 security surcharge for packages to the US that weight over 453 grams. When asked what they do for this fee, they won't tell us, because it's a secret.

Don McKenzie Tullamarine.

======================

--
Don McKenzie

Site Map:            http://www.dontronics.com/sitemap
E-Mail Contact Page: http://www.dontronics.com/email
Web Camera Page:     http://www.dontronics.com/webcam
No More Damn Spam:   http://www.dontronics.com/spam

These products will reduce in price by 5% every month:
http://www.dontronics-shop.com/minus-5-every-month.html
http://www.dontronics-shop.com/ics.html

Bare Proto PCB for PIC or AVR projects?
"I'd buy that for a Dollar!".
Reply to
Don McKenzie
Loading thread data ...

Online shops have a number of trading advantages, absence of GST is just one more for some. People who want a more competitive Australia can't have it both ways.

Reply to
jg

These guys must really be getting desperate. I don't think the overseas online shop sales would be that large anyway.

How many times has somebody said: hay, I bought a $1,000 PC or TV from a online shop in Hong Kong and saved a shit load ?

Reply to
son of a bitch

Try getting your facts straight before whinging yourself. AP is making handsome profits from their hundreds of business lines.

Reply to
Clifford Heath

Sorry Clifford, I promise I'll try and be more accurate in future. (I'll just slap myself around a little bit here)

They claim they are loosing money on their letter posting section, and will be closing post offices after Christmas:

formatting link

Is that better?

It will mean longer queues for any transaction you want to do in a post office, but yes, they will still be making a profit.

==============

And on the end of the article I referred to above: "The company (APO) has taken steps to boost parcel delivery by partnering eBay to simplify the packing and posting of items. Other freight companies have also experienced a significant increase in the number of parcels coming into Australia in the past few months."

So, who is profiting from the extra packages coming into the country? They don't do it for love, do they?

Cheers Don...

=============

--
Don McKenzie

Site Map:            http://www.dontronics.com/sitemap
E-Mail Contact Page: http://www.dontronics.com/email
Web Camera Page:     http://www.dontronics.com/webcam
No More Damn Spam:   http://www.dontronics.com/spam

These products will reduce in price by 5% every month:
http://www.dontronics-shop.com/minus-5-every-month.html
http://www.dontronics-shop.com/ics.html

Bare Proto PCB for PIC or AVR projects?
"I'd buy that for a Dollar!".
Reply to
Don McKenzie

Yes. That doesn't mean they actually *are* losing money though. It could just be a play to get postage rates increased. Impossible to know.

In general, I'm supportive of your main gripe. Large retailers have massive economies of scale wrt transport compared to individual orders, but that has never been enough - they've always been happy to rape both the Australian populace and foreign producers. Especially the clothing industry, which has markups of up to 100x.

If Internet ordering forces them to derive their profits from their actual operations, instead of from their ongoing abuse of market power, that's an excellent thing in my book. Free trade working correctly.

After these excesses start to be equalised, they might have a point about GST exemption for private imports (although the economies mentioned, and the convenience of local display and backup, should be enough for them to still run at handsome margins). Until then however, definitely not.

Clifford Heath.

Reply to
Clifford Heath

US debt levels are no secret

Reply to
B J Foster

My son just ordered some fairly schmick leathers for his bike-riding. Was over $1200 here in Oz, he's getting the absolutely identical product from the USA for a tad over $500 including shipping.

Reply to
who where

I wonder where the saving is made if a locally made product or is it an import made in china ?

--
X-No-Archive: Yes
Reply to
atec77

My attitude on this has been the same for several years. Bring it on. I've routinely brought in goods from overseas WITH GST paid, and still have it significantly cheaper than buying locally.

If they think the government mandated 10% is the difference between a viable business or a closed shop, they crazier than I am.

That's what they're claiming (though it appears not to be the case) and regardless, it's a case of boo bloody hoo.

And the motor vehicle killed off the horse-drawn carriage too. And of the half dozen or so people who are crying about that are probably doing it from their climate controlled modern motor vehicles. Hypocrites.

--
I'm not fat just horizontally disproportionate.
Reply to
John Tserkezis

ElectronDepot website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.