MOTM and Australian customs

[The Dark force of dance]

Y-ellow Michael.
	
At 10:54 AM 06/10/99 +1000, Michael Potas wrote:
>Under GST, sales tax rates should reduce from 22% to 12%(or whatever they
claim it to be).  Not that I agree with the proposed tax system, but we can
save that for another day...

Yes this is true but the GST does nothing to effect import duties. And the
GST, like any other tax, will be slugged on top of the import duties.
Currently, customs charge a tariff depending on the type of goods. It works
out to something like 22% for electronic items. Then whatever that total
sum is, they add the sales tax. Which is where Paul gets his 45% from. I
would assume that under the GST it would be 22% + 10% GST. So if the item
cost AUD$100, it would be AUD$122 + 10% = AUD$134.20. You don't actually
save much under a GST. Not unless we're talking about buying a luxury car
or something.

The actual way that customs currently calculate the tariffs is reminiscent
of Sir Humphrey Appleby from "Yes Minister".  It's the converted cost of
the goods multiplied by the length of the package plus the length of the
custom officer's shoe laces over the custom officer's IQ. Which is usually
a negative sum. On US$150 worth of goods you will pay around AUD$65 in
tariffs. Currently taking your total bill to AUD$303.10

Hope this helps.

Be absolutely icebox.

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