eBay threatens to block Australian shoppers over GST

[unknown]

www.smh.com.au/business/retail/ebay-threatens-to-block-australian-shoppers-over-gst-20170417-gvmkoe.html

[Deleted]

I'm sure the Australians will just go elsewhere and purchase.

Taxing online purchases is a huge debate everywhere. Look at how much money US cites and counties lose to the internet sales not taxed. Not too many people report their purchases from other states.

[somany]

They basically called themselves a venue! Too bad they don't apply it to all aspects

[chapeaunoir]

But eBay said that it did not own, hold or distribute goods

You can sure tell that - they don't know jacksheet about merchandising.

In fact, this scheme sounds like the type of badly (if at all) thought-through mess that eBay themselves come up with all the time.

The internet tax is still up in the air here because of the difficulty of implementation, with something like 54,000 tax jurisdictions in the US (if I remember aright) it would be an administrative nightmare. However, it's supposed to be levied on companies making over a couple of million a year so it won't hamstring we little guys. It might even float business our way - here in Washington we have one of the most regressive tax systems in the country and people buy out of state just to relieved of the tax burden, particularly if they're lower income. Purchasing from small sellers (in our opaque portions of the internet - is that like a semi-sheer black market?) will avoid this.