Kindle books and social ramifications

Samson

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Probably wrong section, but Australia and New Zealand are losing access to most of Amazon due to tax changes.
I buy all books on Kindle now, will this be possible by some remote server idea?
 
Amazon will setup some kind of cheat around the system, and tell it to the world?

I doubt it.

Somebody will set up a man-in-the-middle service, that fools the Amazon server, the Kindle client, and the Australian government, and tell it to the world?

I doubt it.

Don't you have a friend who runs a bank of money-making technical analysis servers for you? What does he think?
 
um,,, how about somebody pays the tax?

Or is it a tarriff to protect the Oz paper industry?
 
Since there are only three posts and none actually provided details or a citation/location of the problem/situation, would someone like to?????
 
Jeez, I will only have 60 million books to choose from rather than 500 million. Oh the drama!!

I use Amazon Australia anyway as I know exactly what I’m paying and don’t have to fiddle with exchange rates. This whole thing is a storm in a teacup.

If, in the most unlikely possibility, Amazon Australia doesn’t have what I want, I will find it elsewhere.
 
So if I'm understanding this correctly, it's some sort of catastrophe that folks in the Southern Hemisphere will have to pay sales taxes on stuff they buy from Amazon just like I do here in Amazon's home state?

ETA: Which doesn't excuse Amazon's attempt to extort your countries to continue their unwarranted advantage, of course.
 
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Trebuchet said:
So if I'm understanding this correctly, it's some sort of catastrophe that folks in the Southern Hemisphere will have to pay sales taxes on stuff they buy from Amazon just like I do here in Amazon's home state?

ETA: Which doesn't excuse Amazon's attempt to extort your countries to continue their unwarranted advantage, of course.
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Pretty much. The government has legislated to levy GST (Goods and Services Tax) of 10% on goods purchased over the internet. GST is paid on purchases made on Amazon Australia but not on the main site as I understand it.
 
New Zealanders aren't losing access to Amazon.com just yet, only Australians, who will be limited to Amazon.au.com.

That might change is the NZ Govt doesn't learn a lesson from this and decide to go ahead with their plans regardless.
 
The other point is that the GST is passed on to the purchaser anyway. Yes, the cost of goods shipped to Australia from Amazon would increase, but I don’t see Australians complaining about GST, so I don’t see this as something which would cripple Amazon.

Anyway, kudos to the government for trying to close this loophole. Amazon makes billions out of Australia and pays next to no tax here.
 
PhantomWolf said:
New Zealanders aren't losing access to Amazon.com just yet, only Australians, who will be limited to Amazon.au.com.

That might change is the NZ Govt doesn't learn a lesson from this and decide to go ahead with their plans regardless.
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Learn a lesson not to charge tax on Amazon? Why should goods shipped to NZ not be subject to sales tax?
 
lionking said:
Learn a lesson not to charge tax on Amazon? Why should goods shipped to NZ not be subject to sales tax?
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Why should they? If I was shipping them in my suitcase they wouldn't, in fact when I buy stuff in places like the UK I can get my VAT back at the airport for things I bought in the UK. Why should things I purchase outside of my country be subject to sales tax inside my country?
 
PhantomWolf said:
Why should they? If I was shipping them in my suitcase they wouldn't, in fact when I buy stuff in places like the UK I can get my VAT back at the airport for things I bought in the UK. Why should things I purchase outside of my country be subject to sales tax inside my country?
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I think you'll find that's called smuggling.
 
Trebuchet said:
So if I'm understanding this correctly, it's some sort of catastrophe that folks in the Southern Hemisphere will have to pay sales taxes on stuff they buy from Amazon just like I do here in Amazon's home state?

ETA: Which doesn't excuse Amazon's attempt to extort your countries to continue their unwarranted advantage, of course.
Click to expand...

I could see a problem, although less for books and more for shipping physical products. There are some...interesting licensing agreements that can vary from country to country on many other forms of media, as one example, and I genuinely don't know how products like cell phones that carry their own set of regulations are handled from one country to he next. That's also true when many Amazon products are actually from smaller businesses that only use Amazon for shipping, product listings, and other such matters, and that may not be set up to handle international orders very well...

But this is just me spitballing here, to be honest.
 
PhantomWolf said:
Why should they? If I was shipping them in my suitcase they wouldn't, in fact when I buy stuff in places like the UK I can get my VAT back at the airport for things I bought in the UK. Why should things I purchase outside of my country be subject to sales tax inside my country?
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You’re not an “all tax is theft” advocate are you?

What is the difference between paying sales tax on goods purchased in a shop in NZ and the same goods bought on-line and shipped into NZ?
 
So far, there's no amazon.dk.
Whenever I buy stuff from amazon.com, also Kindle books, the Danish VAT is added to the price by Amazon and, I assume, transferred to the Danish state.


ETA: It may be an EU thing, I don't know.
 
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It's disturbing that there's even the suggestion of a multinational, for profit corporation answerable to nobody but the rich people that own it is bullying a nation.
 
dann said:
So far, there's no amazon.dk.
Whenever I buy stuff from amazon.com, also Kindle books, the Danish VAT is added to the price by Amazon and, I assume, transferred to the Danish state.


ETA: It may be an EU thing, I don't know.
Click to expand...

It does seem strange. I can still use my amazon.com account (I was a very early Amazon adopter because they were often the only place to get international books) and I've always had to pay VAT or custom fees?
 
I am sure any Australians who wants to buy anything from Amazon in the USA would be able to do so. After all Australians were watching Netflix before it came to Australia. So they can use the same method.
 
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rjh01 said:
I am sure any Australians who wants to buy anything from Amazon in the USA would be able to do so. After all Australians were watching Netflix before it came to Australia. So they can use the same method.
Click to expand...

Netflix doesn't require a delivery address.
 
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