You shouldn't be paying sales tax on overseas purchases, if you are you're getting ripped off.
I agree 100%
How about that, we agree on something :D
What I mean is you're not paying sales tax on goods you buy online, retailers will remove local tax for international shipping.
You should be paying Gst on purchases online, and goods you purchase online should be protected under nz consumer guarantee laws which are some of the most comprehensive in the world.
You pay local sales tax if you have the goods sent to a locally based freight forwarders. Usually goods are freight free (in the US & UK) & the freight forwarders are a lot cheaper getting it to NZ. I shipped 12Kg of goods from the UK to NZ for half the price of the usual channels.
Why should you pay gst on goods purchased overseas? I would have thought an import tax would be more suitable.
NZ Consumer Gurantee Act shouldn’t have to cover overseas purchases, how could it be enforced? The NZ government have no jurisdiction over the company that is selling the product you are buying overseas. Chances are that goods are bought from overseas because they are either cheaper, or it is not available in NZ. The risk you take is that it might be a piece of SHIT you are buying, that’s why it’s cheap!
Buyer Beware!
