GST on Imported Goods

Currently low value goods purchased overseas can enter in the country without paying GST. This rule has been around since the inception mainly for easier administration purposes.

The Government thinks, consumers are doing lot more shopping overseas.  Tax laws needs to bring all overseas retailers on a same level playing field with the domestic retailers.

It means the Offshore suppliers would be required to register, collect, and return New Zealand GST on goods valued at or below $1,000 supplied to consumers in New Zealand. Offshore suppliers would require to be registered if the annual threshold is over $60,000. The tax laws were amended in 2016 to bring all digital service provider to charge GST such as Dropbox, Netflix and Google.  The new GST rules on goods are continuation of the same.

One advantage is tariffs and border cost recovery charges would be removed from imported consignments valued at or below $1,000. The current processes for collecting GST and other duty at the border by Customs would continue to apply for consignments valued over $1,000

The government analyst believes this will even make it cheaper for the consumer if the value of goods is between $400 to $1000. As this will remove custom duties etc and the GST portion would be lower than that. However, majority of customers buy low value items, so they will end up paying the GST portion.

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