Plan to block overseas online retailers that don't collect GST

Lazlow

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SCOTT Morrison is planning his own Mike Baird-style lockout laws by blocking Aussie shoppers access to overseas retailers that fail to collect tax revenue for the government.

From as early as July 2017, Australians may find themselves unable to access the websites of a number of their favourite overseas stores under a plan being considered by Treasury, consumer group Choice has warned.

Under the new tax regulations coming into effect next year, overseas businesses with an annual turnover of $75,000 or more will be required under Australian law to register with the ATO to collect GST on all goods sold, including purchases under the current low-value threshold of $1000.

The Federal Government is exploring the option of blocking websites that fail to co-operate using powers under section 313(3) of the Telecommunications Act 1997. The act, which allows the government and its agencies to block websites that breach Australian law, contains provisions for the protection of revenue

...

“Being able to access overseas websites allows consumers to purchase products not available in Australia, making up for the failings of some domestic retailers,” Choice spokesman Tom Godfrey said.

“Blocking these sites will disadvantage Australian consumers while providing absolutely no benefit to the local economy.

“When these tax changes are implemented, consumers who rely on these stores could be denied access to niche retailers who fail to voluntarily collect GST and send it to the Australian government.”

...

“This policy change threatens to get very messy very quickly,” he said.

“Overseas retailers have no obligation to comply with Australian tax laws, and we all remember ASIC’s attempt to block a handful of websites in 2014, when it accidentally took down over 250,000 sites.”

Mr Godfrey said there had been no modelling or information released by Treasury about the expected impact of changes to the low-value threshold. “There is no guarantee of economic benefit to Australia but it looks like inevitable loss for consumers,” he said.

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While I can understand the support for it in some markets (clothing, books, video games) its worrying when it comes to niche items like cards. I can see some retailers simply refusing to ship to Australia to avoid the hassle altogether.
 
Sorry to get political, but this is just typical of the Liberals. It's bad enough they blame the budget deficit on a labor government that left us in the black (liberals somehow misplaced 25 billion in a matter of months of getting into power) - now they're looking for anything to bail them out of their own budget issues.
 
wouldn't it just be easier to get the tax off of the conglomerates that rip australia's natural resources out and pay 1% tax on the money they make from it... Or the ones that make massive dollars here and hide the money in off shore accounts... if the money is made in business here the tax should be paid here... makes sense...
 
Companies will never pay any tax, like how it is all around the world, simply because they are the supporters behind all your politicians who are making all these policies. They are all looking out for these rich people so that they can become richer and keep the poor people poor. What you should do instead is study how the rich people get richer and remain rich, borrow those ideas and apply them to your own lives.
 
Cards are that low on the radar of these muppets in canberra I can't see them ordering dacardworld to make aussie customers pay 10% let alone blocking us (whatever method they deem appropriate).

Can see this applying more to bigger online outlets like eastbay etc.
 
They cannot possibly block anything, there are tunnel sites that will allow us to continue accessing them and making purchases. Are they then going to tell customs to blacklist certain senders? no, it will cost too much money to train up the staff and implement an IT solution to make it efficient and effective (refer to the census fail).
 
Wouldn't it be a bit impractical to block websites to purchase off.

Would use of a vpn beaming out of somewhere besides Australia mean that the websites will no longer be blocked??

I'm not a real techo person someone with a higher knowledge of that sort of thing might be able to provide further insight
 
It looks like they are just using this as an excuse (decoy) to block other sites that they don't want to mention, like what Steve Conroy tried to do last time when he wanted to block all porn sites.
 
Scott Morrison is a perpetual tosser of the highest order.

The time and man-power to develop and implement such a system would cost an incredible amount of money.
And in all likelihood other nations lawmakers could deny or legislate against the proposal considering their markets stand to lose $$$ when we stop spending coin with their businesses.

And then again, as mentioned above.. we will just jump on a VPN and away we go.
 
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