The structure of the Australian taxation system provide opportunities for the wealthy to minimize the amount of tax that they pay on income.

For the vast majority of Australian taxpayers, such schemes are out of reach.

Banks provide concessions to wealthy depositors.

To call for GST to be added to products bought online by ordinary Australian taxpayers seems to be extremely hypocritical considering that the wealthy are able to take advantage of taxation concessions that are not available to the ordinary wage and salary earner.

A level playing field would also mean that the average wage and salary earner, has the same taxation advantages that the wealthy now enjoy.

Snap James H. I started a similar thread.

I agree with the intent in your points about taxation benefits for business compared to consumers and PAYEs however issues as regards pricing and taxation are separate to issues of a level playing field for business in Australia.

We should be asking why do clothes cost more here than in the US given most of it is made in China. Why do companies (like some computer companies) charge more for online sales of a laptop to Australian consumers but if you bought the same product as a US citizen it would be cheaper?

Why can you pick up a music CD more cheaply in the US but in Australia you pay through the nose? They are valid questions but separate to issues of a level playing field.

I am against GST altogether but we are stuck with it unless some future government grows some backbone and removes it.

Overseas sellers aren't obliged to collect tax for our government and setting up some sort of customs border tax thingo would cost more than they'd gain. They'll probably go ahead with that to appease Harvey. Maybe he could contribute some of his 1.5 Billion towards it. OR, the hypocrite could use Australian businesses and workers for his stock.

In the end, even if they do impose some sort of GST, products will still be cheaper from overseas as you usually get products for up to 80% cheaper than onshore. Seems to me they need to reassess their outdated business models.

Pelican, is Australia, there are monolopies, duopolies.

Our market is smaller than California, being isolated with air or sea access, it makes it very easy to corner the market.

The Competition either gets taken over, or put out of business, look at example how we were conned on the banks. Competition went out the window as soon as they swallowed the smaller fry.

we are being sold huge porkies on the sale of energy suppliers and distributors and we again are paying more for power than the Americans.

No wonder we are badly governed when governments have to respond to such bone headed thinking.

One of the prime reasons for introducing a GST was to get at least some tax from the wealthy.

As James says, the wealthy can minimise their tax on income.

They could also, in very many cases get around the sales tax, that preceded the GST.

The GST is much harder to avoid, & would have been more so, if the Democrats had not wanted to grandstand. Even so all was not lost.

So, thanks to John Howard's guts, we now do get some tax out of the wealthy. No matter how much tax they may avoid paying on their earnings, with the GST in place, for the first time, they could not avoid paying a bit, every time they spend some of that wealth.

So stop bitching, & give praise to honest John. Now when someone earns a million a year, they are going to spend most of it, which means around $100,000 in GST we did not get out of them before.

Hardly Normal is a real whinger.

His shops are terrible, his web pages non existent.

The wages he pays, and the conditions of retail workers are a disgrace.

What will he say when the FTA with China starts up?

And whatever taxes Canberra gathers on imports evaporates altogether?

I was looking at buying a camera the other day, $750 approx from Hardly Normal and just about everyone else in Australia, but $420 from the web.

Hardly a 10% GST difference there is there?

My bike tyres cost $60 here, but only $20 post free from the UK, and they are made in Indonesia. Why would I buy them from here, when people like Hardly Normal insist on 'free trade'?

AS for Myer and Target joining in with Normal's whinge!

If they ran decent shops, with a few staff, with some products that were not cheap tat at high prices, maybe I'd consider shopping there, but, frankly, Myers is a last resort shop for our family.

Target? Well, were to start? Shocking place, bad design, poor stock, and absolutely no staff on the floor.

Might as well use the Internet as buy from a warehouse with no staff on duty, eh?