Hunt on eBay for tax dodgers
Published March 12th, 2007
EBAY has handed over the personal and financial details of hundreds of its top customers to the Australian Taxation Office as part of an investigation into GST compliance.
The ATO has asked for the details of eBay sellers with an annual turnover of more than $50,000. The request is understood to be part of an ATO audit to determine if sellers are avoiding GST, and could affect up to 1000 customers.
EBay Australia managing director Simon Smith said the ATO had requested data for the period July 1, 2003, to June 30 last year. The request was made a month ago and sellers were informed by email yesterday.
At least one seller is known to have gone into liquidation this year after a related ATO probe.
EBay provided to the ATO information including members’ contact names, seller user names, phone numbers, duration of membership and monthly sales turnover for the periods in question. Mr Smith said the data had been provided in compliance with eBay’s privacy policy.
One seller whose data had been requested by the ATO told The Australian the audit would help rid eBay of unscrupulous sellers. Donna Kelly, who operates online clothing store Bonditopsellers, said that by not claiming GST on sales, some sellers were undercutting more legitimate operators.
EBay has more than five million members in Australia and hosts thousands of merchants who use the service to sell their wares online.
EBay’s Australian presence is run by eBay International, based in Bern in Switzerland.
“As a foreign entity, eBay International is not required to be registered for GST and therefore does not have an ABN (Australian Business Number),” the company’s Australian website states.
But some sellers are understood to have assumed that invoices for fees and charges sent to them by eBay had included GST, and had made claims to the ATO to recoup the GST amounts.
Mr Smith said any GST problems were up to the seller to sort out.
