Using a 3PL Warehouse in Australia: The Tax Consequences (2026)

Once your stock sits in an Australian warehouse, whether a third-party logistics provider (3PL) or an Amazon fulfilment centre, every sale from it to an Australian customer is an Australian GST sale that you report yourself. Four things change: you may need to register for GST, most 3PL fees come with 10% GST, someone has to be the importer at the border, and the warehouse raises a permanent establishment question for income tax. Handled in the right order, the GST mostly washes out through your BAS. Handled late, it comes out of your margin.

The money is in the credits. A registered seller gets back the 10% paid at the border on each shipment and the 10% on every 3PL invoice. An unregistered seller pays both and still owes GST on its sales once it crosses the registration threshold.

What changes when stock moves into Australia	What it means for you
Your sales from the warehouse	Connected with Australia: they count towards the A$75,000 threshold, and once registered you charge 10%
The 3PL’s invoices	Expect 10% GST on storage, pick and pack and delivery; claimable only with standard GST registration
The shipment into the warehouse	10% border GST on consignments over A$1,000, paid by the importer named on the declaration
Income tax	An arm’s-length 3PL is generally not your permanent establishment; your own space or staff can change that

(General information for FY 2026–27, not advice for your circumstances. ATO guidance on non-resident businesses and GST, warehoused goods and imported goods checked on 5 November 2026. The A$75,000 GST registration threshold is not indexed and may change.)

1. Do I need to register for GST if my stock is in an Australian 3PL?

You may. The ATO says goods imported and warehoused in Australia for later sale to Australian consumers are connected with Australia and subject to GST, whether you sell through your own website, a marketplace or a third party. Those sales count towards your GST turnover, and once it reaches A$75,000 you may need standard GST registration.

This is the line most overseas sellers miss. When you ship each order from overseas, low-value goods (A$1,000 or less) sold through a marketplace are usually taxed by the marketplace, not by you. The moment the same goods sit in an Australian warehouse before they are sold, that rule no longer applies. The sale is your own Australian supply, and the GST on it is yours to report. Our article on whether Amazon collects GST draws that line in detail for Amazon sellers.

The ATO flags this as a common error: overseas suppliers reporting warehoused goods as if they were low-value imports. Two consequences follow:

• Simplified registration is not available. The ATO’s simplified (ARN) registration is for low-value imports and digital services, not goods sold from Australian stock. A warehousing seller that needs to register needs standard registration with an ABN.
• The threshold counts Australian-connected sales. Every sale from the warehouse to an Australian customer counts, across all your channels. You can also register below the threshold, which is often worth doing because of the credits in sections 2 and 3.

If you have already crossed the threshold without registering, the registration date can be set back to when you were required to register, and the GST on past sales is still owed. Our guide to backdating GST registration covers that fix.

2. Does an Australian 3PL charge me GST, and can I claim it back?

Expect 10% GST on most of your 3PL bill: storage, pick and pack, and delivery to your customers. We see it on fulfilment invoices across our overseas clients, Amazon’s FBA fees included. You can claim it back as a GST credit only if you hold standard GST registration.

The technical reason is narrower than the invoice suggests. Services supplied to an overseas business are often GST-free, but the ATO treats delivery and fulfilment of goods addressed to someone else as provided to that addressee, your Australian customer (GSTR 2025/1, paragraph 72). So the fulfilment lines carry GST whether or not you are registered. Registration only decides whether you get it back. Our breakdown of Amazon FBA fees in Australia shows the same split line by line.

Two practical points:

• Ask for a tax invoice showing the 3PL’s ABN. For anything over A$82.50 including GST, you need one to claim the credit.
• Your invoice is the authority. Some 3PLs treat particular lines, such as moving your own stock between their sites, differently. Claim what the invoice shows as GST, no more.

3. Who is the importer when I ship to a 3PL or an Amazon FBA warehouse address?

Usually you, and it has to be arranged before the stock ships. The FBA warehouse address, or your 3PL’s address, is only the delivery address on the import declaration. Amazon will not act as your importer, and a 3PL normally will not either. The importer named on the declaration pays the 10% border GST, and only that importer can claim it.

Border GST is 10% of the value of the taxable importation: the customs value plus duty plus transport and insurance to Australia, on any consignment worth more than A$1,000. Your customs broker lodges the declaration with your business named as owner and importer. The usual traps:

• DDP terms with the forwarder as importer. The forwarder pays the GST and builds it into the freight bill, and the credit sits with the entry, not with you. Our article on the importer of record and the GST credit explains why the entry decides it.
• Moving your own stock with no sale. If you ship goods you already own into the warehouse, there is no sale price to declare. The customs value has to be worked out another way; see customs value in Australia.
• Paperwork that never reaches you. To claim, keep the finalised import declaration and the Home Affairs receipt for each consignment.

A registered importer that lodges monthly can also apply for the deferred GST scheme, so the border GST is paid on the BAS instead of before the goods are released.

Worked example: Sam’s first quarter in a Sydney 3PL

Sam runs a US company selling kitchenware. It holds standard GST registration and moves its Australian stock into a Sydney 3PL. One quarter, illustrative figures:

	GST (A$)
Sales from the 3PL: A$33,000 including GST (33,000 ÷ 11)	3,000 payable
Border GST on one shipment, value of the taxable importation A$22,000	2,200 credit
3PL fees: A$4,500 plus GST	450 credit
Net GST for the quarter	350 payable

Without registration, Sam would still pay the A$2,200 at the border and the A$450 to the 3PL, with no way to claim either. At A$132,000 a year of sales, the company may well be required to register anyway, and the GST on those sales would then be owed out of the prices already charged.

4. Does stock in an Australian 3PL create a permanent establishment?

Generally not, if the 3PL is an arm’s-length provider and the space is not at your disposal. Under Australia’s tax treaties, a permanent establishment needs a fixed place of business that your company can use as its own. Buying storage and fulfilment as a service from an independent 3PL does not usually give you that.

GST and income tax run on different rails. Being registered for GST says nothing about whether your business profits are taxed in Australia. The risk rises when the facts move from buying a service to running a place:

• you lease your own warehouse or exclusive, dedicated space you control;
• you employ staff or contractors in Australia who work for you there;
• someone in Australia can negotiate or conclude contracts on your behalf;
• a director moves to Australia and makes the company’s decisions from here.

That last one can go further than a permanent establishment and raise the question of whether the company itself is an Australian tax resident. Our article on FBA stock and permanent establishment sets out the treaty reasoning, which applies equally to an arm’s-length 3PL. Write your position down before anyone asks.

Where it’s worth getting help

The free path is clear enough. Check whether your Australian sales may reach A$75,000, register for standard GST with an ABN if they will (or if the credits are worth it), get your broker to name your business as importer on every shipment, keep the import paperwork and the 3PL’s tax invoices, and report every warehouse sale on your BAS.

Where it goes wrong is the order. The stock lands before the registration, the first shipments go in under the forwarder’s name, and months of border GST and 3PL GST are paid with nobody able to claim them. As registered tax agents we set up the ABN, the GST registration, the importer details and the first BAS with you before the first container arrives, so it is right the first time rather than reconstructed later.

If you would like your setup checked, our initial assessment scopes it in about twelve questions, without a meeting.

---

FY 2026–27. General information, not tax advice for your circumstances. ATO guidance checked 5 November 2026. Worked example is illustrative. Fee GST reflects the fulfilment invoices we see for overseas clients; your own invoice is the authority. The A$75,000 GST registration threshold may change.