Does Shopify Collect GST for Australian Orders? No — Here's Who Does (2026)

No. On your own Shopify store, you are the seller, so the GST on an Australian order is yours — Shopify doesn’t charge it, collect it or remit it.

That surprises overseas sellers who already sell on Amazon or eBay, because on those marketplaces the platform does collect the GST on low value goods shipped into Australia. The rule that makes them do it applies to marketplaces. Shopify isn’t one. It builds and hosts your shop; the shop, the sale and the GST are yours.

The good news sits in the same rule: because your marketplace sales are the marketplace’s problem, they don’t count towards your A$75,000 registration threshold. Only your own-store sales do. An overseas seller doing A$180,000 a year across Amazon and Shopify may still have nothing to register.

Order into Australia through your Shopify store	Who deals with the GST	Counts towards your A$75,000?
Shipped from overseas, customs value A$1,000 or less, to a consumer	You — charged at checkout once you’re registered	Yes
Shipped from overseas, one consignment over A$1,000	Nobody at checkout — the importer pays at the border	Generally no
Stock already in Australia (your own or a 3PL warehouse)	You — an ordinary Australian sale	Yes
Store uses Shopify Managed Markets	Global-e, the merchant of record	Global-e is the seller

(General information for FY 2026–27, not tax advice for your circumstances. Confirmed against the ATO and Shopify’s Help Center on 16 September 2026.)

1. Does Shopify charge GST in Australia?

No — Shopify is the software your store runs on, not the seller, and the ATO says a service that builds a website with a shopping cart for someone else is not an electronic distribution platform.

Since 1 July 2018, the GST on low value goods sold into Australia (customs value A$1,000 or less) can shift from the seller to an electronic distribution platform — a marketplace like Amazon or eBay that lets merchants make sales to customers. Where that rule applies, the platform is treated as the supplier and collects the 10%.

The ATO’s public ruling on platforms, LCR 2018/2, draws the line exactly where a Shopify store sits:

“A service is not an EDP if it only builds or maintains the infrastructure behind a service that makes supplies available to end-users. For example, a service provider who builds a website that includes a shopping cart functionality (for the operator of a website) is not itself an EDP.”

The same paragraph adds that the operator of the website “could be an EDP” — and on your own store, the operator and the seller are the same business: you. There is no second party to hand the GST to.

Shopify says the same thing from its side of the counter:

“Tax is your responsibility. Shopify doesn’t remit or file your taxes for you, unless you use Shopify Tax and set up automated filing.”

Shopify Tax isn’t one of the services Shopify lists for Australia (more on that in section 2), so for an Australian order that exception doesn’t come into play.

The one real exception: Managed Markets. If your business is based in the continental United States, or is one of the eligible stores in Canada or the United Kingdom, Shopify offers Managed Markets, which makes Global-e the merchant of record on your international orders. Australia is on its list of destinations. On those orders the customer sees a notice that they are buying from Global-e, and Global-e handles the tax registrations and remits the tax — for a fee of 3.5% of the order (3.25% on Plus) plus a 1.5% currency fee. That is a genuine “someone else is the seller” arrangement. Turning on duty and tax estimates at checkout is not: Shopify is explicit that you remain the merchant of record there.

2. Does Shopify have GST built in for Australia?

It has tax settings for Australia, not tax collection: Shopify’s Basic Tax service calculates GST once you give it a registration number, but it doesn’t register you, remit anything or file for you.

Shopify’s tax services depend on where your business is based. Its own table puts Australia on Basic Tax, alongside New Zealand, Norway, Switzerland and Singapore. The fuller Shopify Tax service, the one with automated filing, is listed for the United States, the EU and UK, and Canada.

Basic Tax, in Shopify’s words, “requires you to input a tax registration number to calculate your taxes.” In practice that means:

• No registration, no GST. Until you have an Australian registration — an ABN under standard registration, or an ATO reference number (ARN) under simplified registration — there is nothing for the store to charge against, and you shouldn’t be charging it.
• Shopify calculates; you remit. The GST shows up in your orders and reports. Getting it to the ATO, on a BAS or a simplified GST return, is your job.
• Duty and tax estimates are a different feature. Shopify can show international buyers an estimate of duties and import taxes at checkout. Its help page calls those charges “estimates”, and they don’t change who the seller is.

The exact screen you use depends on where your store is based, but the settings live under Settings › Taxes and duties in your Shopify admin.

What about GST on Shopify’s own fees? That’s a separate question with a separate answer — an Australia-based store pays 10% on its Shopify subscription unless it adds a GST-registered ABN, and the Shopify Payments side works differently again. We cover it in our article on GST on Shopify fees. This piece stays on the GST on your sales.

3. Does a Shopify store need GST?

It may — once your GST turnover reaches A$75,000. For an overseas seller, the sales that count are your own-store sales of goods into Australia, plus anything sold from stock already here. Marketplace sales where the marketplace collects the GST don’t count.

Your GST turnover isn’t your total worldwide revenue. For a seller outside Australia it’s the sales connected with Australia. Sorted by what actually happens on a Shopify store:

• Low value goods shipped from overseas to Australian consumers — count, in full. On a marketplace these would be carved out because the platform is responsible. On your own store nobody else is, so they stay in.
• Stock already in Australia — counts. Sell from an Australian warehouse or 3PL and those are ordinary Australian sales.
• Consignments over A$1,000 imported by the buyer — generally don’t count. The GST on those is collected from the importer at the border, not from you.
• Your Amazon and eBay sales of low value imported goods — don’t count. The ATO says it in its merchant guidance: where the platform is responsible, those sales don’t count towards your GST turnover when working out whether you need to register. Your own store is then assessed on its own.
• Sales to GST-registered Australian businesses — come out. Check the customer’s ABN and GST status on ABN Lookup rather than taking it on trust.

Here’s how that plays out for a seller shipping everything from overseas:

Channel, last 12 months	Sales to Australia	Counts?
Amazon AU, all under A$1,000	A$120,000	No — Amazon collects
Shopify store, all under A$1,000	A$60,000	Yes
GST turnover		A$60,000 — under A$75,000

A$180,000 of Australian sales, and this seller may not need to register. Grow the Shopify store to A$80,000 and the answer changes, even if Amazon stays flat.

The test looks both ways — your current turnover (this month plus the previous eleven) or your projected turnover (this month plus the next eleven). If either reaches A$75,000 you may need to register, and the ATO expects it within 21 days of crossing the line, or of reasonably expecting to. The threshold isn’t indexed, so check the current figure before relying on it.

Which registration? Overseas sellers get a choice. Simplified registration is quick, needs no ABN and gives you an ARN — but it can’t claim any GST credits, and it isn’t available at all if you warehouse goods in Australia before selling them. Standard registration takes an ABN, lets you issue tax invoices and claim credits, including the 10% import GST on stock you bring in. You can’t hold an ABN and an ARN at the same time.

4. Shopify Australia GST: how it works at checkout

Once registered, you charge 10% on the full delivered price of Australian orders worth A$1,000 or less in customs value — and you do not charge it on consignments over A$1,000, because those buyers pay GST at the border.

Three details decide whether your checkout gets this right.

Customs value decides whether; the delivered price decides how much. Customs value is the price of the goods minus international freight and insurance. The ATO’s example: jeans with a A$300 customs value, sold for A$350 including shipping, with GST charged on the full A$350.

Over A$1,000, stay out of it. GST, duty and clearance charges on those consignments are billed to the importer at the border. Charge GST at checkout as well and your buyer pays it twice. And watch consolidation: several cheap items shipped to the same buyer in one consignment over A$1,000 go to the border too. The ATO’s example is two A$750 necklaces — sent separately, GST at checkout on each; sent together, A$1,400, none at checkout.

One-eleventh of the payout isn’t yours. Australian consumers expect GST-inclusive prices, so the GST sits inside the price and lands in your Shopify payout with the rest of the sale. On every A$110 Australian order under the line, A$10 belongs to the ATO. Set it aside when the payout arrives, not when the return is due.

The warehouse flip. Everything above assumes goods shipped from overseas. Move stock into an Australian warehouse or 3PL and every Australian order from it becomes an ordinary domestic sale: GST on each one regardless of value, the sales in your A$75,000, and simplified registration off the table. The ATO’s position is plain: a non-resident that imports goods and warehouses them in Australia before selling them online has the GST obligation, because the goods are in Australia. It also means the bulk import itself carries 10% at the border — around A$10,000 on A$100,000 of landed stock — which standard registration lets you claim back.

What to do next

If you ship everything from overseas, sell mostly through marketplaces, and your own store’s Australian sales are well under A$75,000, you may have nothing to do. Check it once a quarter and carry on.

It’s worth proper attention if any of these is true:

• Your store’s Australian sales are approaching A$75,000, on either the backwards or the forwards test.
• You’re about to use an Australian warehouse or 3PL. The obligation starts with the first sale from it.
• Your checkout already charges GST on Australian orders but you aren’t registered — or it charges GST on orders over A$1,000.
• You’re choosing between simplified and standard registration.

You can do all of this yourself. The ATO’s registration pages are free, ABN Lookup is free, and Shopify’s tax settings are a few screens.

Where a registered tax agent earns their fee is the choice that’s expensive to reverse: the registration type and the date it takes effect, set against where your stock will be in a year’s time. Register simplified because it was quicker, move to a Sydney 3PL six months later, and you have a registration you can no longer keep, import GST you couldn’t claim, and a checkout that needs reconfiguring mid-season. Getting the type, the start date and the store settings right the first time is worth more than anything we can fix afterwards.

If you’re not sure which side of the line your store is on, it’s a short conversation — where the goods ship from, and what the store sold into Australia over the last twelve months.

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Epic Tax is a registered tax agent in Australia working with overseas e-commerce sellers. This article reflects ATO guidance and Shopify Help Center content as at 16 September 2026, for FY 2026–27, and is general information only — it does not take account of your circumstances. The A$75,000 registration threshold is not indexed; confirm the current figure and how it applies to you before acting.

Sources: ATO — LCR 2018/2 GST on supplies made through electronic distribution platforms (paras 22, 27, 28, 50), If you are a merchant (QC 52554), If you are an EDP operator (QC 67375), GST on low value imported goods (QC 52551); LCR 2018/1; Shopify Help Center — Taxes, Basic Tax, Overview of Managed Markets, Requirements and considerations for using Managed Markets, Collecting international duties and import taxes at checkout.