The end of the world is nigh. On July 1, you’ll no longer be able to access the US iteration of Amazon, your one-stop shop for everything from lightsaber chopsticks to the “Pooch Selfie” (it’s a “squeaking tennis ball attachment” for your phone to keep your pooch camera ready, OK?).
MUST BUY POOCH SELFIE NOW.
But who knows if you’ll be able to buy these very everyday items come Doomsday?
Reason being that Amazon has announced that, come the new financial year, Australians will be blocked from Amazon.com and any other international Amazon sites in order to comply with incoming GST collection legislation, which requires the 10% tax to be applied to all purchases from overseas online merchants.
So they’ll be no more of that sphincter-tightening anticipation of receiving that Amazon parcel of goodness from the US of A on your doorstep and the satisfaction of knowing you got a sweet, sweet deal on that Pooch Selfie.
Instead, we’ll be directed to the considerably more limited local platform with only 60 million products.
CLENCHING WITH DELIVERY JOY.
But here’s where it gets confusing. There’ll also be an “Amazon Global Store” launching (huh?) where you’ll be able to buy over 4 million products that were only available from the US website before.
But because of all the drama, Amazon will give us $20 smackers to use on its Australian store, so that’s something?
So really, what’s become known as the “Amazon Tax” (currently applied to items over $1,000) won’t be so much of an “Amazon Tax”, because the Amazon overlords are kinda pissing off back to the US, virtually at least.
As reported by the Sydney Morning Herald, an Amazon spokesperson says it’s all about assessing “workability”.
So basically, it’s too expensive to implement and we couldn’t be bothered.
But are we really that surprised? The government has forced Amazon’s hand, and in times of economic austerity, even for a big kahuna like this one, it makes better business sense to just pull the plug.
Still, the government reckons that everyone’s a winner with the new GST rules, although they would say that.
“The government doesn’t apologise for ensuring multinationals pay a fair amount of tax here in Australia,” said treasurer Scott Morrison in a statement yesterday. “A level playing field will help Australian businesses grow and create more jobs and opportunities.”
So although the move is a fair one for bricks-and-mortar retailers like Harvey Norman, JB Hi-Fi, David Jones and Myer, who have all lobbied hard for it, is it really going to be great for us little people wanting a competitive price?
After all, life is damn expensive and we NEED our lightsaber chopsticks! Is there no way to stop getting slugged with the down-under-arse-end-of-the world obscene price disparity compared to the US, as we do with say, iTunes?
That we don’t know yet, but safe to say, crack out the plastic or the PayPal or your cryptocurrency of choice, and get busy buying people. Did we say the end is nigh?