Amazon to block Australian shoppers from its US website
By senior business correspondent Peter Ryan
Key points:
- It is understood Amazon baulked at the administrative burden of tracking GST
- Under new collection laws, online retailers will be forced to apply GST to goods bought on international sites and sent to Australia
- Amazon will launch a global store accessible to Australian customers
- From July 1 when the new GST regulations begin, Australian consumers shopping on Amazon international sites will be redirected to the local Australian site.
Online retail giant Amazon will block Australian consumers from its global sites to counter new laws to force it to collect the good and services tax on transactions.
In a statement issued to the ABC, Amazon said it regretted the move and the inconvenience to customers accustomed to visiting Amazon's global online stores.
"We have had to assess the workability of the legislation as a global business with multiple international sites," a spokeswoman said.
Under the new GST collection laws beginning on July 1, online retailers like Amazon will be forced to apply the 10 per cent GST to goods purchased on international sites and shipped to Australia.
The GST collection requirement came after years of intense lobbying from local retailers in Australia such as Harvey Norman, Myer, JB Hi-Fi and David Jones, who have seen their traditional bricks and mortar sales suffer from online competitors.
Currently GST is applied to items bought overseas for more than $1,000.
It is understood that Amazon baulked at the massive administrative burden of tracking Australian GST from all overseas transactions.
Amazon is launching a global store accessible to Australian customers, where products from its retail site will be available.
In an email to customers today, the company said from July 1 it would redirect Australian shoppers from its international sites to amazon.com.au where products sold by Amazon US will be available on the new global store.
"We have taken this step to provide our customers with continued access to international selection and allow us to remain compliant with the law, which requires us to collect and remit GST on products sold on Amazon sites that are shipped from overseas," the company said.
"Amazon Global Store will allow Australian customers to shop on amazon.com.au for over 4 million items that were previously only accessible on amazon.com.
"This selection is in addition to the more than 60 million products that are already available on amazon.com.au across 23 categories, including books, fashion, toys, and electronics."
'A level playing field will help Australian businesses grow'
'Sick of always having to pay more'
We asked our audience on Messenger to tell us how they felt about Amazon's decision to block Australians from using its global sites. Here's what they told us.
A spokesperson for Treasurer Scott Morrison said the new GST regulations "level the playing field" for Australian businesses.
"The Government doesn't apologise for ensuring multinationals pay a fair amount of tax here in Australia. That tax revenue is used to fund essential services," the spokesperson said.
"A number of other countries are taking a similar approach and adopting a vendor collection model to collect GST from low-value imported goods.
"A level playing field will help Australian businesses grow and create more jobs and opportunities."
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-05-3...tralia/9820224
It looks like a lot more people will be using VPN's and baggage forwarding in Australia. I'm assuming this doesn't apply to the Amazon Japan store, only US and UK?
Inukami