Thinking of getting a new board . Has anyone bought one since July 2018 and did you get slugged with GST or import duties when it arrives in Australia.

I got a mast and 2 sails sent ovr last year, was over the $1000 limit, didnt have a to pay anything extra

I am getting some stuff sent soon and cant find out how it will work either. Some have said that under $1000 will be as before (no added GST) , but that does not seem to be what the new legislation says??????

It seems a but hit and miss. Like they don't or can't check the value of every shipment?

I would also like to hear if anyone else has had experience importing from NZ (or elsewhere) this year.

I was a bit concerned buying the Motion, that some taxes would be added at the Australian customs. But it came though tax free. There must be loads of Motions that have come in this year, has anyone been charged GST?

we had a couple delivered to Fangy's place, a few months ago. No tax required.

I bought 2 units, no GST paid.

Had some goods come in from the UK this year, over the 1K and got a call from customs and hit with a few hundred in taxes which had to be paid before goods would be released. Beware.

Get on a plane Bruce it'll cost you $60 to bring back,pay for an extra bag before getting to the airport

Get on a plane Bruce it'll cost you $60 to bring back,pay for an extra bag before getting to the airport

Yep, and have a nice weekend trip to NZ.

Probably a good chance, but there is no guarantee you will get through customs free that way either.

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sailquik said..
Yep, and have a nice weekend trip to NZ.

Probably a good chance, but there is no guarantee you will get through customs free that way either.

Bruce might be already on the plane

Hi Bruce . Hugh and i had 2 ca boards sent to his house from NZ earler in the year . Zero import tax

All good, no taxes.

Come on Bruce, where is the picture of your new board?

maybe its this one

It's got a little smiley face on the back but it's missing a winking eye.

Yes, James handles my PR, that's one of them, the other is 109.

Nice Bruce.

I have just been trying to clarify this as well.

Good to hear you didn't get slugged on the boards.

I got some masts sent from NZ recently. The sender stuffed up and the declared value was over $1000. Got charged not only GST, but roughly the same amount again in Customs Duty charges. (They charged to to charge me the GST basically - not happy! )

Since I want to arder a new ski from the USA, I spent a fair bit of time today on the phone to Customs and then Fedex.

The current situation is (as far as I understand it) that anything that is below $1000 and "Posted" to you from an overseas seller that is not a collector of GST (so not from Amazon or some other online stores that collect GST for the Australian Govt.) does not attract GST or duty. If it comes by sea or air 'freight', the situation seems to be: Under $1000: GST is levied but not duty. If it is over $1000, both GST and Duty/Customs are charged.

So my question was, what does 'posted' mean? I finally found an answer on the Fedex website:

Note: "Importations by post" is not restricted to goods carried by Australia Post. The ATO has ruled that goods weighing less than 31.5 kgs that are transported to Australia and delivered door-to-door by an international express courier service or similar door-to-door courier are goods posted to Australia.

So it looks like my new Ski from the USA (under $1000) sent via Fedex, should arrive GST free. Phew!

I guess I will only be buying 'used' windsurfing boards from overseas with a declared value of under A$1000 from now on.

Very useful information. Julien was asking if he could post multiple of his motion devices to the same address and i was unsure about the rules. So it looks like 2 at a time would not attract any additional tax.

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sailquik said..
I have just been trying to clarify this as well.

Good to hear you didn't get slugged on the boards.

I got some masts sent from NZ recently. The sender stuffed up and the declared value was over $1000. Got charged not only GST, but roughly the same amount again in Customs Duty charges. (They charged to to charge me the GST basically - not happy! )

Since I want to arder a new ski from the USA, I spent a fair bit of time today on the phone to Customs and then Fedex.

The current situation is (as far as I understand it) that anything that is below $1000 and "Posted" to you from an overseas seller that is not a collector of GST (so not from Amazon or some other online stores that collect GST for the Australian Govt.) does not attract GST or duty. If it comes by sea or air 'freight', the situation seems to be: Under $1000: GST is levied but not duty. If it is over $1000, both GST and Duty/Customs are charged.

So my question was, what does 'posted' mean? I finally found an answer on the Fedex website:

Note: "Importations by post" is not restricted to goods carried by Australia Post. The ATO has ruled that goods weighing less than 31.5 kgs that are transported to Australia and delivered door-to-door by an international express courier service or similar door-to-door courier are goods posted to Australia.

So it looks like my new Ski from the USA (under $1000) sent via Fedex, should arrive GST free. Phew!

I guess I will only be buying 'used' windsurfing boards from overseas with a declared value of under A$1000 from now on.

You can also declare a SAMPLE item, I read a while back they were going to reduce($1000) down to $250, looks like they haven't.
Gov are a mob of thieves, just like the luxury car tax to protect the Aussie motor industry which has long gone but the tax hasn't.

The crazy thing is, for years the govt said they could not lower the $1000 threshold because it would cost way more to collect the GST than the revenue gained.

Nothing has changed in that respect, but now we have the 'Hervey Norman' tax being collected for the Government by international online sellers. That is how they got around it to satisfy the 'Harvey Normans'.

Of course, none of the Chinese sellers will collect it for the Govt. so most stuff under $1000 from China comes in GST free.

Sailquik, Most stuff I buy from China comes via ebay who do charge the 10% GST. Most things are buy are less than $10 so the GST is very little. Generally the items are between 10% and 50% of what you would pay in Australia. A lot of the savings are in the postage cost. Chinese companies can sell and post many items to Australia for $1. Whilst the cheapest any Australian companies can manage is about $4.

I agree with your findings regarding receiving posted items of under $1000. I got two Motions posted to me and paid no GST or Duty.

Thanks, that interesting I had not noticed. I wonder if it's the same with Alibaba?

Yes, since we recieved the first Motions around a year ago, we were confused about whether we would get hit with GST, but never did, At least we know why now.