23
has been removed and the other will be
shortly, he says.
“Those guys were great. They came
through quickly.”
NZ Customs’ group manager for revenue
and assurance, Richard Bargh, says a law
change taking effect on December 1 will
force marketplaces such as Trade Me to take
more responsibility. The so-called “Amazon
tax” will make online platforms responsible
for collecting GST on all imported goods
worth up to $1000. This means Trade Me
will need systems in place to keep track of
sellers on its platform.
“They won’t be able to
allow suppliers under their
website to undervalue
goods, or they will be
at risk of penalties from
IRD,” Bargh says.
“For example, a web-
site such as Trade Me
will have to do due dili-
gence to know whether
someone is a genuine New
Zealand supplier or not.
“If they are a NZ
TO
NY(^) N
YB
ER
G
company, Trade Me has no responsibility
[for GST].
“But if they say they are a New Zealand
entity and actually are an offshore supplier,
that puts Trade Me into a non-compliant
position and there are penalties under
the Goods and Services Tax Act.”
ONUS ON MARKETPLACE
Bargh says it’s always going to be
tough to protect against rogue
overseas sellers – it’s easy for
companies to change their names
and addresses. He says Customs’
resources are better spent on data
analytics to catch fraudsters, rather
than on opening and checking the
more than 27 million parcels that came
through Customs last year.
Having good information means the
public and industry groups such as Emery’s
need to keep talking to Customs. But the
agency also relies on websites such as Trade
Me to be proactive.
“The tactic is to make it difficult for [rogue
overseas companies] to sell through normal
channels, and websites have an important
responsibility in that space. [Sites such as
Trade Me] are seen as reliable and need to
maintain their good name.”
Meanwhile, mobile phone-less Ahuja says
the past six weeks have been a big waste
of time.
The irony, he says, is that if you add $150
of GST and $55 of import duty onto the cost
of the phone he bought from UDS Mart,
you get a phone costing more than $1200.
That’s more expensive than the same model
available from some New Zealand retailers.
“If I’d known about the GST problems,
I certainly wouldn’t have bought from
them,” Ahuja says.
“And in the meantime, I don’t have my
cellphone.” l
“There were no red flags
for [Trade Me] until non-
deliveries started to
happen. We took [UDS
Mart] down that day.”
NZ Customs’ Richard Bargh.
Photography trick: A
camera body for which
a buyer paid $3907.95
(top left) had a declared
value of $243. Above,
Photographic Imaging
Association chairman
Gerard Emery.