Retailers call for GST on overseas sales

They only pay excise and a camera for instance has no excise and the GST is paid by the end buyer.

Actually GST is paid at every point of sale.

However for example if an importer (who also pays GST) pays $10-00 GST, and then gets $15-00 GST on selling the item; only remits the extra $5-00 to the government.

And so on up the food chain.

Does customs charge/collect GST on everything that comes in?

On all commercial transactions, unless the item fits into a rare category of GST free items.

(Maybe not so rare, as I am not sure what is GST free).

The importer can defer the GST payment for 30 days.

Enormous difference.

Err ... what is an "spl meter"?

It may or may not be. I used to work for an acoustic engineering shop, and we had *real* trouble finding a cheaper AS1259 Type 2 meter. Our client's choice was either the Type 1 loggers we made (~$7K), or a Japanese Rolls Royce branded hand held meters. Nice but really pricey (From memory, started around $1K or so).

They were asking for lower priced Type 2 meters because they really didn't need any fancy features, as long as it was compliant, and were reluctant to spend ~$1K each.

We couldn't find any. Closest we came to, was two el-cheapo meters, both same brand and model, one passed AS1259 Type 2, the other failed.

Many are asking for Type 1 specs, type 2 as a minimum. We speculated these meters would pass type 3 (repeatedly), but no-one asks for it, and the courts won't take anything less than type 2, so we weren't geared up to test for it anyway. So basically, these meters were good as "toys" as far as we and our clients were concerned.

Going on your prices above, I might be able to speculate that WAS indeed a $50 meter with ~$400 tagged on for the calibration test and certificate. Which might be a plausible explanation to the price difference, but, going on past experience, I'm not buying the idea that a ~$50 meter is going to pass type 2. The ones we looked at were ~$300 eBay specials (well, at the time several years ago), and they failed. And that's assuming they're only marking up ~$50, which I'm not buying either.

If you don't really care for compliance and just want it for indication only, you need to be wary that "indication only" is as good as the human ear. That is, if you're looking at a noise complaint, as far as the courts are concerned, that meter is as good as "I think it sounds too bloody loud". In other words, it doesn't count.

If it isn't going to be used for any legal compliance, then I could be warranted in asking *why* anyone really needs a number attached to a noise, especially when that number can't actually be used for anything (useful) anyway. (not that I can think of anyway).

Rob wrote

tax on overseas spending.

overseas, retailers have approached the

$1000 to $400 or

always value the item at $2 for customs.

(sales/state etc).

on exports.

usually charged on exports.

usually charged on exports.

With some like the US, their sales/state taxes are substantially less than our GST etc even with that type of sale.

terryc wrote

paid by the end buyer.

Nope, not on stuff thats worth less than $1K and even with stuff thats worth more than that, it doesnt get charged on every transaction, particularly when the seller understates its value and quite a few do.

I even had one send the label off the item separately and say it was close to worthless when it wasnt, and was in a sealed metal container where no customs shinybum would have a clue what it actually was.

Obviously you don't set up sound systems where a relative measurement is all that's required then. Legal traceability is not required to simply check sound levels at various locations are similar for example. Most cheap meters are at least fairly repeatable, even if the measurement uncertainty is unknown!

MrT.

GST is paid by the end buyer.

I have found that particularly from asian sellers, they mark the value very low, or put gift/commercial sample,

In reality, there is probably no need, as the items are worth nowhere near $1000, but that is not to say that other countries dont have a lower limit.

kreed wrote

Nope. There has never been any legal obligation for an importer of a product to do any warranty work on what has been imported by someone else.

Nope.

Nope, the price differences are due to other effects entirely.

They dont 'represent' anyone, they just import the products of that manufacturer.

yesterday's world

Nope, yours is.

You havent.

No global markets work like that.

Pure fantasy.

In the real world, its just binned and they buy another.

And they do that with branded products that has no local repair possibility too.

Its just as true of branded products that have no local repair possibility too.

And plenty do that with stuff where the price isnt dramatically cheaper too like with hard drives.

And plenty more stick with HP and Tek.

And plenty more dont, like with hard drives, cpus, etc etc etc.

kreed wrote

Yep.

Yep, and some countrys dont have any limit at all.

possibly measured relative to the average wage?

Retailers call for GST on overseas sales

STRUGGLING retailers want to spoil consumers' post-GFC party and put a tax on overseas spending.

With new research showing half of all Australians now shop online overseas, retailers have approached the Federal Government to wind back the GST threshold on overseas goods from $1000 to $400 or even abolish the limit altogether.

I've saved a fortune buying online and OS. The differences in local and OS prices is just incredible. Shows how much we get gouged. Fuck the retailers. They can compete like the rest do out there too. Online.

You will note that the retailers/importers have not passed on that saving so what do they expect.