Hello,
I have bought from a company and require an invoice with the GST component to claim back GST credits for my business. The company I have bought from is registered for GST, yet in the invoice they sent me, the GST component is gives as $0. If it helps, the item was one of those high powered battery generators and the price was $3000. Company is trading with active Australian ABN.
Are they legally required to send me an invoice with GST on it? What can I do if they refuse?
I believe they must if the item attracts GST.
Have you asked them if it's correct?
If a customer asks for a tax invoice, you must provide one within 28 days, unless it is for a sale of $82.50 (including GST) or less.
https://www.ato.gov.au/business/gst/tax-invoices/
By law they are required to issue a tax invoice.
Find out why they won't / can't issue one.
Perhaps call the ATO hotline if they refuse.
$82.50 seems like such a random number….
Used to be $50 +gst
Now $75 +gst
I used to only fill up with $55 per tank so I didn't have to keep receipts. (Credit card record only)
Now I fill up with $82.50 per week
They provided an invoice, but the GST is marked as $0 on it. I asked them for clarification, but they have not replied so far.
They provided an invoice, but the GST is marked as $0 on it
Perhaps the item is GST-free?
Maybe? I had a look at the kind of items that are GST exempt but I'm not sure how a large battery bank / solar generator (like those ecoflow/blueyetti ones) would fall under that. To me at least, it is very clearly just a consumer electronic item, but I wouldn't rule out that they found a weird loophole.
Just share the ABN and the exact product you bought. Nobody can answer your question otherwise. Stop beating around the bush.
The product is this https://au.ecoflow.com/products/delta-max-portable-power-sta… with the ABN being this https://abr.business.gov.au/ABN/View?id=41658483008
are you sure it is an australian company? the domain is registered using a chinese registrar so there is some chinese connection. might also be a scam site.
They are selling through an Australian ABN at least.
Just a guess but it seems like it was sent from overseas.
Price in Australia is $3,299 so $2,999.09 before GST. Goods over $1000 shipped from overseas don't fall under the low value system where GST is paid through the seller. What is supposed to happen for goods over $1000, is the GST is supposed to be paid by the importer, i.e. the person buying the goods, and this is picked up by customs. Sometimes the declaration isn't clear or does not have the full value, or customs misses it.
I note with Ecoflow's support that while they have a .au email address, their phone support is US-based.
[email protected]: +1 (800)-368-8604 (English service only. International charges apply if calling from outside of the US)
yeah, i suspect the OP has bought from an overseas chinese company and might get hit with an extra gst on import
It was shipped from Regents Park NSW and arrived within a day via Toll Express. Definitely shipped from Australia. Invoice has an ABN also.
Price in Australia is $3,299
Ordered it via Amazon Market Place, which had a $200 black friday/cyber monday discount applied.
Ordered it via Amazon Market Place
Well you missed a key piece of information you could have shared earlier.
Tax Information
All prices on Amazon.com.au are shown inclusive of GST. Amazon does not separately calculate GST on items ordered from EcoFlow-AU through the Amazon.com.au site. Calculation of GST is the responsibility of EcoFlow-AU. Items ordered from EcoFlow-AU may be subject to GST, depending on the type of product and the location to which the order is shipped. If an item is subject to GST, in accordance with Australian tax laws, the GST is generally calculated on the total selling price of each individual item, including delivery and handling charges, gift-wrap charges and other service charges, less any applicable discounts.
Pricing Policy
Prices shown on the Site are in AUD. Local sales VAT tax will NOT be included in price
Yet their website directly calculates GST.
Their FB group has multiple comments and peeps paying import taxes in Australia. There's also numerous comments of refurbished products received, so check your item carefully.
Long story short, "Ecoflow Australia" is likely a separate mob with a licence agreement with the overseas mob. They are probably avoiding tax and liabilities left right and centre, or they paid tax upon import.
Report them, or don't, I'm not your dad.
your contribution was good until your last sentence, when you became snarky for no good reason….
They are an overseas company - the local subsidiary seems fairly new - they were registered for GST only from 31 Mar 22. An accountant could have set up the Aus branch on their behalf. The person generating the invoice may not be familiar with or trained about our tax invoice requirements, and may even be located offshore. Despite the shipping being from a local address.
Just wait for their reply - it could simply be an unintentional mistake, which can be fixed.
I have somewhat similar interactions with Amazon third-party sellers, who were mainly based overseas. They were not very aware or familiar with our tax invoice requirements.
I just received the reply, which simply reads
"Since your order did not charge tax, so it is zero on the GST."
Sounds like they are not familiar with our ATO GST requirements.
Send them this link, which I sent to my seller last time.
And mention that they have to charge the GST, and submit it to the ATO.
The only issue I can see is that they may come back and say they made a mistake, the price you pay is before GST, and slap on the GST on top of it. Which works out the same for you.
There is good info above. If the invoice was raised in the name of the local company quoting their ABN ask them what the basis is of the sale being GST-free? 'Did not charge tax' is not a valid response. The answer is it should have been subject to GST…
If they have not charged GST on top when they should have it's their tough luck.
https://www.accc.gov.au/publications/advertising-and-selling…
You should pursue this for a tax invoice with the gross amount being what you paid. Good luck.
On the upside, they haven't charged GST so there is no need to claim it back.
OP bought it on the basis that the price was GST inclusive. So he is out of pocket $3000/11.
The item was $3,299 (https://au.ecoflow.com/products/delta-max-portable-power-sta…) so $3,299/11 is $299. This reflects that GST was not charged as he got it for $3k not $3.3K
@Brick Tamland: The item was $3199 and Amazon applied a $200 voucher as part of the Black Friday/Cyber Monday sale. Prices on Amazon are inclusive of applicable GST, or least they should be.
@skyworxx: Ok that makes it a bit more murky. But yeah, anything from the Amazon AU site should have a GST inclusive price but your invoice states otherwise. Sounds like they should have charged GST on the $3k all up price.
Take a look at this
https://www.ascendstrata.com.au/files/downloads/Valid_Tax_Invoices&_GST_Credits.pdf
you maybe able to claim a GST credit if you can show that you made an effort at getting the invoice corrected which it sounds like you have.
Looks like they use Shopify for their backend.
Load up your order confirmation page, open the order summary drop-down at the top. In the total section does it say “includes $xx.xx in taxes”?
Like this https://ibb.co/LnL10Wj
I bought it via Amazon, so no Shopify backend there. All I got was a pdf invoice after I asked that looks like it was made in Xero
If you add the item on their website to the cart and go checkout, it does say the item is $3299 which includes $299.91 in taxes.
Looks like their overseas team is a bit clueless.
You could lodge a complaint with the ATO as well for possible tax evasion.
On amazon look up the purchase and you should be able to see the FULL checkout receipt and it should have the GST on it as Im 100% sure AMAZON charged it (and probably paid it) and not the seller. Hense when you asked for a reciept, because the seller didnt pay or collect it (Amazon did) the reciept they sent you had $0 GST. Its the AMAZON checkout receipt that matters as its charged AT THE POINT OF SALE and Amazon collects GST
Amazon does not provide an invoice, just an order summary, which explicitly states it is not a GST receipt:
https://ibb.co/vBgzHXt
Amazon also states I should contact the seller for a proper invoice. I think all the Marketplace stuff only uses Amazon as the payment gateway but legally you are buying from that seller and they are responsible for charging/collecting GST
OP, I am not sure if you saw my comment before but you dont need to worry about this unless you want to report that entity for not charging GST.
Since the seller didn't charge you GST there is no GST to claim back. Regardless of whether they did or did not charge you are still paying the same price. The seller not charging GST has left you in the same position if they did charge GST and you claimed it back.
Ignore this comment, its not right after seeing additional info provided.
Is this cash converters?