Amazon is getting a bit of flack this afternoon over its intentions to re-direct Australian visitors to their global site to their Australian arm thanks to upcoming changes to GST on imported goods.
We’ve been following the intent of the Australian government to add a charge to imported parcels whose value falls beneath the previous $1,000 threshold for some time. The change will be put into effect to charge GST on ‘low value imported goods’ as of July 1st according to the ATO, and it seems Amazon is not keen to fall afoul of the Australian government.
The change to Amazon’s website traffic, is being communicated to Amazon’s international customers with the company stating that from the 1st of July Aussie visitors to Amazon’s global .com site will be redirected to the Australian .com.au site instead.
According to ZDNet who have sourced the email, the company said
While we regret any inconvenience this may cause, from 1 July we will be redirecting Australian customers from our international Amazon sites to amazon.com.au where you can shop for products sold by Amazon US on the new Amazon Global Store, available today.
We have taken this step to provide our customers with continued access to international selection and allow us to remain compliant with the law which requires us to collect and remit GST on products sold on Amazon sites that are shipped from overseas.
The new legislation requires any business which generates more than $75,000 in sales will be required to register with the ATO – a category that Amazon would clearly fall into.
Amazon has put a good deal of effort into launching locally here in Australia with fulfillment centres first in Victoria and more recently in Sydney’s south western suburbs. The launch hasn’t exactly been a winner with online customers, most of whom have found it’s often cheaper to purchase through the US site and pay shipping to Australia.
Long story short, if you’re wanting to purchase anything from Amazon you’d better get onto it before the 1st of July or start planning your trip to the US.
