In recent weeks Australian retailers have called for the removal of the GST threshold for goods bought overseas. At present consumers do not have to pay GST on goods that they buy from abroad worth $1000 or less.

With the growing consumer trend of buying goods online, online retail sales represent the future of Australian retailing and offer considerable benefits to both retailers and consumers. eBay offers consumers  a wide variety of products and the opportunity of saving money and time. In fact, Australian based sellers on eBay experienced phenomenal growth in 2010, almost 10 times retail growth over the same period[i].

In January 2011, the Australian Prime Minister, Julia Gillard, said that reducing the GST- free threshold would not be financially efficient. However, the Government will wait until the outcome of a Productivity Commission Inquiry later this year before formally responding.

For more details on the Productivity Commission Inquiry, please go to http://www.pc.gov.au/

[i] Sources: eBay and ABS data compared over a 12 month period ending 30 September 2010. ABS data excludes food & cafes.