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Oh no: ‘Netflix tax’ introduced to parliament

Treasurer Scott Morrison has introduced draft laws to parliament that will apply the GST to digital products purchased from overseas.

The so-called Netflix tax is designed to level the playing field for Australian business and is set to raise $350 million over four years.

The change will apply to foreign companies selling digital products in Australia such as movies, games and e-books.

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Under the current setup, overseas digital products such as Netflix are permitted to sell to Australians without adding a good and services tax, while local products are bound by regular Australian law.

The additional GST would see your monthly Netflix subscirption rise, but not until the tax is introduced on July 1, 2017.

The tax will apply to overseas companies that sell more than $75,000 worth of product to Australian consumers.

“When the GST was introduced in 2000, such transactions were relatively unusual, especially for consumers,” reads the bill’s explanatory statement.

“However, cross-border supplies now form a large and growing part of Australian consumption.”

The bill forms just part of a larger scheme to crack down on overseas tax avoidance, particularly by big tech companies.

In 2014, Google, now the largest company in the world thanks to the Alphabet revamp, paid just $11.7 million in Australian tax.

– with AAP

Topics: Netflix
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