It seems that if I purchase something overseas and have it shipped here, if its total value (incl. shipping) is under $1000 NZD, that Customs won't collect GST at the border, and rather, this is supposed to be collected by the Vendor.

But what happens if your vendor doesn't collect GST at the time of sale, and your goods are under $1000? Will it then be collected at the border by Customs?, or by your shipper (e.g., DHL)?

[–] [email protected] 4 points 6 months ago (1 children)

So you're not using YouShop or similar, the place you're buying from is not registered for GST in NZ and the value including shipping is under $NZ1000?

This CAB page says:

If the overseas seller is not registered for GST, they do not have to add GST to the cost of the goods

If the overseas seller is not registered for GST (because they do less than $NZ60,000 of sales to New Zealand customers), they will not collect GST on the goods you buy from them.

If the total value of the goods is no more than $1000, you will not be liable for GST.

So it seems you wouldn't pay GST.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 6 months ago (1 children)

Yeah just shipping via DHL or UPS.

Interesting, I wonder if there's a way to know whether a seller does under that per year, or maybe if customs flags that they are doing over the limit, they send a request to the vendor, hence if they don't seem to be collecting gst as time of sale, one could assume they are under?

[–] [email protected] 3 points 6 months ago (1 children)

My assumption is that the govt makes sure big tech are all registered then that gets them 90% of the GST they want.

It's probably difficult to enforce for small vendors even if they clear $60k, but it probably doesn't make too much difference. I'm pretty sure one if the main targets was subscriptions (I seem to recall it being called the Netflix tax).

[–] [email protected] 2 points 6 months ago (1 children)

That makes sense. Maybe I'll give it a go and order it lol. It's somthing that isnt sold here, and even if they do end up putting on GST somewhere along the line, it's not a deal breaker.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago) (1 children)

For future reference - in case you want to order something over $1000: I recently bought a PC directly from a small manufacturer's website (not your usual Amazon etc) which was over $1000 NZD, and I didn't get charged any duties for it. I'm not a 100% sure why, but it could be that didn't declare the full value on the waybill. And it also got shipped by DHL, who'd normally take care of clearing the customs duties etc and would contact you if you had to pay anything.

But on the other hand, if I'd ordered it via Amazon or eBay, I would've definitely had to pay duties. For instance, a couple of years ago, I had ordered another PC - this was from eBay - and they shipped it via DHL. Normally if the seller used the eBay Global Shipping option, eBay would've calculated and charged me the duties during checkout itself. In this case however, DHL handled it. I also had to apply for a client number with customs beforehand, since I was importing something over $1000 (this was basically just filing out a form and providing identification). But this can take a couple of weeks, so best to get registered well in advance, so as to not hold up the delivery.

So maybe what Dave implied was true (as in they keep any eye out only for the big name exporters).

[–] [email protected] 1 points 6 months ago

Interesting. Good to get some real life examples of that theory in action :)