[LINK] Claim by Harvey Norman That Imports Are GST Free

[Scott Howard]

On Wed, Feb 1, 2012 at 1:20 PM, Tom Worthington <tom.worthington at tomw.net.au
> wrote:

> The website "Harvey Norman Direct Imports" states: "All online
> transactions with Harvey Norman Direct Imports are GST Free.":
> https://www.harveynormandirectimport.com/help
>
> However, about 20 minutes into the program "Cybershack" an advertorial
> for Harvey Norman stated: "... no GST will be charged on orders under a
> grand" (Win TV Canberra, 11:30:am 29 January 2012). This suggests that
> GST will be charged on orders of $1,000 and above, contradicting the web
> site.
>

Presuming the goods are shipping from overseas, Harvey Norman don't need to
charge GST for any order, regardless of value.

However as with all imports, if the value of the goods being imported
(including postage/shipping/etc) are >$1000 then GST is payable, and is
collected normally by Australia Post, the courier company (Fedex/etc), or
potentially directly by Customs.

So technically both statements are correct - HN are not charging GST on any
orders, and no GST will be charged (by anyone) for orders under $1000.

Were this could get interesting is if you made multiple orders. Customs has
the right to treat multiple shipments going to the same person within a
certain timeframe as a single order.  So make two $750 orders within a few
days, and customs can (and often does) treat it as a single $1500 order, so
GST would be payable on the entire amount.

  Scott