Posts Tagged ‘Ebay’

eBay exec slams proposed GST for goods purchased online

Friday, August 1st, 2014
Photo courtesy of Ryan Fanshaw on Flickr

Photo courtesy of Ryan Fanshaw on Flickr

Applying the GST to online purchases under $1,000 isn’t fair for people who cannot afford to travel outside the country to buy cheaper goods, an eBay executive has said.

While in Sydney for a meeting with the G20 taskforce that is looking at ways to reduce trade barriers — including taxes imposed on online sales — head of eBay’s government relations, Tod Cohen, said enacting the GST on purchases below $1,000 would turn sites like eBay and Amazon into tax collectors.

NSW Treasurer Mike Baird has pushed hard for lowering the GST threshold for online purchases and has talked about taxing global online sales above $20.

“Any time you get down to that type of threshold, you’re discriminating against Australians who can travel and those who can’t travel,” Cohen says.

“We try to maintain an opportunity for people to participate in the global marketplace and one of quickest ways to shut that down is by imposing taxes. There’s no way they’ll drop the threshold for international travellers. We’re not going to see duty-free shut down.”

Cohen says $1000 was a ­reasonable threshold, given the threshold in the United States was $800 and Europe was about the same.

To read the full story, click here.

Ripoff Central: 40% markup on iPad 2

Friday, April 1st, 2011

This is what Australians are willing to pay, now that the iPad 2 is officially sold out in stores.

Ebay is a different story, however, as the listings for iPad 2 have an average selling price of $1141 (for the 64GB WiFi models), being over 40% increase in the store pricing.

Apple itself is not helping the over-charging done by hopeful eBay sellers, with new stock not being available in Apple stores for around the 3-4 week mark.

Whats a desperate iPad 2-lover to do? Consult eBay and get bidding!

View the full article on Sydney Morning Herald here.

Mobile shopping – get set to splurge

Tuesday, June 22nd, 2010

Paypal, the lucrative branch of Ebay which allows individuals and businesses to pay online using different methods of payment, is looking to the Asia-Pacific region to grow e-commerce.

The latest figures from Informa Research show that in this region, buying products online with a handheld device is to go up to $139,000 billion USD in 2012, with the key markets being Japan and Korea. The rapidly expanding use of smartphones is credited for this growth in use.

To cope with the higher workload, Paypal has plans to double employees in the offices of Australia, China, Hong Kong, India, Japan, Taiwan and Singapore by the end of the year.

To read the full article, click here.