GST on Low Value Imported Goods: How the A$1,000 Rule Works for Sellers (2026)

Most overseas sellers have the A$1,000 rule pointing the wrong way. It doesn’t exempt anything. It moves the GST from the border to the checkout.

Here is the shape of it. Since 1 July 2018, goods with a customs value of A$1,000 or less that are sold to consumers in Australia and shipped in from overseas carry Australian GST at the point of sale. The seller, the marketplace or a redeliverer collects it — whichever of them the law makes responsible — and sends it to the ATO. Over A$1,000, nothing changed: the importer pays GST, duty and clearance charges at the border, as before. So the rule decides where the GST is paid, not whether. Get three positions right and it stops costing you anything: parcels under A$1,000 through a marketplace, where the platform collects and those sales leave your registration test; parcels under A$1,000 from your own store, where you collect one-eleventh of the delivered price; and stock that already sits in an Australian warehouse, which is outside the rule entirely.

	GST on low value imported goods in one line
What it is	GST on goods with a customs value of A$1,000 or less, sold to Australian consumers and brought in from overseas — since 1 July 2018
Where it’s collected	At the point of sale, by the seller, the marketplace or a redeliverer — not at the border
How “A$1,000” is measured	Customs value: the price of the goods minus freight and insurance to Australia, in A$, when the price is first agreed — item by item
Who charges it	Only one business per sale. The marketplace if it’s responsible; otherwise the seller; a redeliverer only if neither is
The threshold	The ordinary A$75,000 GST turnover test — unchanged by the 2018 rules; sales the platform is responsible for come out
The exception	If you reasonably believe the goods will arrive as one consignment over A$1,000, don’t charge: the border collects (LCR 2018/1)
What stops double GST	Your registration number and a GST-paid code on the import declaration
Not covered	Items over A$1,000, alcohol and tobacco, sales to GST-registered businesses, and stock already in Australia

(General information for FY 2026–27, not tax advice for your circumstances. Every rule below was checked against ato.gov.au — QC 52551, 52553, 52554, 55423, 18025, 67371, 52379 — and the consolidated Law Companion Ruling LCR 2018/1 on 22 September 2026.)

1. What is GST on low value imported goods in Australia?

Since 1 July 2018, Australian GST applies to goods with a customs value of A$1,000 or less that are sold to consumers in Australia and brought in from overseas. The ATO’s own wording is that if you are a non-resident business selling such goods, “GST applies and you will have to collect this from your customer and send the GST to us” (QC 52551). It is charged at the point of sale by the seller, the marketplace or a redeliverer, instead of at the border.

The reason it exists is the gap it closed. Before 2018, imported goods were only a taxable importation if the consignment’s customs value was over A$1,000, and an overseas seller’s sale to an Australian customer was not “connected with Australia” unless the seller was also the importer. Under A$1,000, nobody paid GST. The Treasury Laws Amendment (GST Low Value Goods) Act 2017 changed that by making the sale connected with Australia, so the GST is collected by whoever sells or delivers the goods.

Under section 84-75 of the GST Act, a sale is caught when all three of these are true (LCR 2018/1, para 32):

It is a supply of low value goods — one or more items each with a customs value of A$1,000 or less, other than alcohol, tobacco and tobacco products (section 2).
It is an offshore supply of low value goods — the goods are brought to Australia and the merchant, a marketplace operator or a redeliverer delivers them or “procures, arranges or facilitates” the delivery. A tourist who buys board shorts abroad and carries them home in a suitcase isn’t caught, because the shop did nothing to bring them in (LCR Example 4). A shop that books a courier to send a dress to the customer’s Australian address is (Example 5).
The customer is a consumer — an entity that is not registered for GST, or is registered but isn’t buying for an enterprise it carries on in Australia. You may treat a customer as not a consumer only if they have given you their ABN and a declaration or other information that they are registered for GST (paras 86–90). An ABN alone isn’t enough.

What the rule does not cover matters just as much:

Situation	Low value imported goods rule?	What applies instead
An item with a customs value over A$1,000	No	A taxable importation — GST, duty and charges at the border, paid by the importer (import GST in Australia)
Alcohol, tobacco, tobacco products	No, at any value	Always a taxable importation at the border
Sale to an Australian business that gave you its ABN and confirmed it’s GST-registered	No	Not connected with Australia under these rules; put their ABN on the customs documents (section 5)
Stock you have already imported into an Australian warehouse, then sold	No	An ordinary taxable sale wholly within Australia — you charge the GST; the marketplace isn’t the supplier; standard registration (section 3)
Goods a customer carries in personally	No	Nothing at the checkout; the traveller concession at the border

The last row is the one that trips up this audience. The A$1,000 rule is about goods that are outside Australia when they are sold. The moment your stock is sitting in a fulfilment centre in Sydney, every sale from it is a domestic Australian sale, and the whole low-value framework — including the marketplace collecting for you — falls away.

2. How does the A$1,000 rule work — what counts as “low value”?

A$1,000 is measured on the customs value — “the price the goods are sold for, minus freight and insurance from the place of export” (ATO QC 52551) — converted into Australian dollars and tested at the time the price is first agreed with the customer, item by item (LCR 2018/1, paras 18, 35, 55).

The steps, as the ruling sets them out (para 60), for a typical consumer order:

Start with the price the customer actually pays for the goods, excluding Australian GST.
Deduct any freight and insurance included in that price for the leg from the place of export to the Australian address — and any Australian brokerage fees, if included.
Add any foreign inland freight or insurance to get the goods to the place of export, if it wasn’t already in the price. (For a parcel posted from your warehouse, there usually isn’t any.)
Convert to Australian dollars if the price was in another currency.

That gives the customs value. Two worked examples show why the freight deduction matters:

Order	Price paid	Shipping and insurance inside the price	Customs value	Result
A phone, delivered	A$1,050	A$60	A$990	Low value goods — GST at the checkout
A phone, delivered (LCR Example 3)	A$1,100	A$40	A$1,060	Not low value goods — GST at the border

Three more features of the test:

It is item by item, not order by order. Under section 84-79, “each of the goods supplied that individually has a customs value of $1,000 or less will form part of a supply of low value goods, even if the total customs value of the transaction exceeds $1,000” (para 36). Six shirts at A$200 each are a A$1,200 order and still a supply of low value goods (para 41) — unless the exception in section 4 applies because they will travel as one consignment.
A mixed order is split in two. A laptop at A$1,200 with a A$150 bag and a A$80 headset is two supplies: the bag and headset are low value goods (GST at the checkout, if the sale is taxable); the laptop is not, and is taxed at the border (Example 1).
The point in time is when the price is agreed. A currency move after that doesn’t change the answer. The ruling’s own example: if the Australian dollar falls so that goods under A$1,000 at the checkout are over A$1,000 on the day of export, the checkout GST stands and the border is switched off by the paperwork in section 5 (para 208).

Over A$1,000 per consignment, the ATO’s position is the one every importer knows: “any GST, customs duty and clearance charges are charged to the importer at the border” (QC 52551). A consignment, for this purpose, is goods sent from one person to another by post, or by air or sea cargo on the same ship or aircraft (LCR para 100). Notice that the A$1,000 rule uses two different values: the customs value decides whether the goods are low value goods; the price the customer pays — with the shipping back in — decides how much GST there is (para 173). Section 6 has the arithmetic.

3. Who charges the GST — you, the marketplace or a redeliverer — and do you need to register?

Only one business charges GST on a sale (ATO QC 52553): if a marketplace — an electronic distribution platform, or EDP — is responsible, the merchant is not; if the marketplace or the merchant is responsible, a redeliverer is not. Whoever is responsible counts those sales toward the A$75,000 GST turnover test, which the 2018 changes did not alter (LCR 2018/1, paras 25–26).

Take the three roles in turn.

Selling through a marketplace. An EDP is a service delivered electronically that lets sellers make sales to buyers — an online marketplace or app store. If you sell low value imported goods through one, the operator is generally responsible for the GST, and “these sales don’t count towards your GST turnover when calculating if you need to register” (QC 52554). Whether a given platform treats itself as responsible is set out in its own terms — see does eBay collect GST on my Australian sales? and does Amazon collect GST in Australia?. A service that only advertises your goods and links to your own site isn’t an EDP; those sales are yours.
Selling from your own store. You are the merchant and the GST is yours to charge — once you are registered or required to be. The ATO is explicit about the seller who does both: “although you do not include the sales you make through the EDP, you will need to register if the value of the sales from your online store meet the GST registration turnover threshold of A$75,000” (QC 52554). Shopify and its peers are software, not marketplaces — does Shopify charge GST in Australia? covers that side.
A redeliverer. An offshore mailbox or shopping service that brings goods to Australia for a customer when the merchant won’t ship there. It is responsible only if neither the merchant nor a marketplace helped bring the goods in, and its turnover includes its fees and the value of the goods it redelivers (QC 55423). Ordinary carriers aren’t redeliverers.

The turnover test. You may need to register when your GST turnover from sales connected with Australia reaches, or is projected to reach, A$75,000 in a twelve-month window (QC 18025 — the figure isn’t indexed, so confirm it). What goes in and what comes out:

Counts toward the A$75,000	Comes out
Low value imported goods you are responsible for, sold to consumers	Low value goods the marketplace is responsible for
Imported services and digital products to Australian consumers	Sales of low value goods, services or digital products to GST-registered Australian businesses
Every sale of stock already in Australia	Sales not connected with Australia at all

Which registration. A non-resident chooses between two, and the choice is the decision that matters (QC 67371, updated 11 September 2026; QC 18025):

	Simplified GST registration	Standard GST registration
Who it’s for	A non-resident that doesn’t need an ABN and sells low value imported goods, imported services or digital products	Anyone with, or needing, an ABN
Identifier	ATO reference number (ARN)	ABN
Reporting	Quarterly GST return, online, pay electronically	BAS
GST credits	None — including on taxable importations	Yes, including import GST
Tax invoices	Can’t issue them	Yes
Warehousing in Australia	Not available — the ATO’s words are that a non-resident “that imports goods and warehouses them in Australia … will have a GST obligation for the goods sold because the goods are located in Australia” and needs standard registration	The registration that claims the import GST back

For a seller who only posts parcels under A$1,000 from overseas, simplified registration may be all that’s needed. The moment stock lands in an Australian warehouse, it is the wrong registration. You can move between the two, but not hold both at once. The mechanics of registering from overseas are in GST registration for non-residents.

4. What does LCR 2018/1 say about the exception for consignments over A$1,000?

Under section 84-83 — the exception LCR 2018/1 spends paragraphs 92 to 164 on — a sale of low value goods is not connected with Australia if you have taken reasonable steps to find out how the goods will be shipped and, having taken them, reasonably believe they will arrive as one consignment with a customs value over A$1,000 and be taxed at the border. The exception holds “even if the supplier’s reasonable belief is incorrect” (para 93).

This is the part of the ruling written for sellers, and it is more practical than it sounds.

Two elements: reasonable steps, then reasonable belief. Both are tested at the moment the price is set before the goods are exported (para 95). Nothing that happens after that point — an item going out of stock and shipping separately — changes the answer (paras 139–140).
Your ordinary systems count as reasonable steps. “A supplier’s use of their usual business systems and processes will constitute taking reasonable steps if this provides them with a reasonable basis for forming a reasonable belief” (para 94). A checkout that shows the customer the items will ship together, backed by a warehouse process that does ship them together, is enough (Example 10: a A$1,350 order where the buyer chose “send together” — no checkout GST).
Steps beyond your systems also count. A seller whose factory usually posts each chair separately, and who phones the factory to ask that this order’s two chairs go in one crate, has taken reasonable steps (Example 9). What doesn’t count is taking none: “the requirement to take reasonable steps to obtain information will not be satisfied where no steps are taken” (para 122).
If you’re not sure, charge the GST. “If the supplier knows that the goods will be consigned separately or is uncertain whether the goods will be sent together then they will need to return GST on the goods” (para 97). The paperwork in section 5 then switches the border off, so the customer isn’t taxed twice.
Keep the record. Suppliers “should keep records that set out the process through which they determine whether the exception applies” (para 130). Applying it repeatedly to goods that then arrive as separate parcels is “an indicator that the ATO may use” (para 131), and deliberately splitting a consignment after applying the exception, so the goods dodge the border too, is where “the anti-avoidance rules in Division 165 may apply” (para 132).

Put together, the ruling’s Table 1 comes down to this:

You reasonably believe the goods ship as one consignment over A$1,000	You’re uncertain, or know they ship separately
Don’t charge GST at the checkout. The border collects GST, duty and charges from the importer	Charge GST at the checkout. Pass the GST-paid information through so the border is switched off; if it isn’t, the customer claims the border GST back from you

5. What does the ATO require on receipts and customs documents?

Two things: a notice to the customer in the approved form showing the GST, and the same details passed down the shipping chain so that the import declaration carries your registration number and a GST-paid exemption code — the code that, under section 42-15, makes the importation non-taxable so the border doesn’t charge GST a second time (LCR 2018/1, paras 194–213).

The notice to the customer. An email confirmation or receipt is fine, provided it shows (para 195):

your name and your GST registration number — ARN or ABN;
the customer’s name, if the transaction is over A$1,000 in total;
the date;
what was supplied, the quantity and the GST-inclusive price of each item;
the GST on each item, and which items were taxable. If everything was taxable, showing the total GST-inclusive price and stating that it includes GST is enough (para 196).

The customs documents. If you are registered or required to be, you must “ensure” the customs documentation for the goods carries (para 198; QC 52553):

your registration number (or the marketplace’s, if it is the supplier for GST purposes);
the customer’s ABN, if they gave it to you;
the extent to which the sale was treated as taxable.

You don’t lodge the import declaration yourself — the carrier or a broker does, on the importer’s behalf. The obligation is to take reasonable steps, and “in practice, a supplier will have taken reasonable steps where they include the relevant information on their commercial documentation which is passed through the logistics chain” (para 200). One document can do both jobs: the receipt that satisfies the notice rule contains everything the customs entry needs (para 201).

Why it matters — the switch. The law is built so that a low value good is taxed either as a sale or as an importation, never both (para 205):

Notified in time — the import declaration carries your registration number and the GST-paid exemption code before the goods are cleared — and the importation is non-taxable. This is what protects the customer when a A$1,200 order you charged GST on arrives in one box, or when a currency move pushes the customs value over A$1,000 after the sale (paras 207–213).
Not notified in time, and the customer pays GST at the border as well. They can then show you the receipt or the import declaration advice from their broker, you reimburse the GST you charged, and you make a decreasing adjustment on your next return (paras 226–230). A customer charged twice comes back to you.

When the GST was wrong in the first place. If you charged GST on something that was never a low value goods sale — an item over A$1,000, alcohol or tobacco, a GST-registered business customer, a GST-free product — the importation is not switched off, even if “GST paid” is written on the entry (para 237). Refund the customer and correct the return; once the refund is made, the excess GST can be recovered from the ATO (paras 238–240).

6. How do you calculate and charge the GST?

GST on a low value goods sale is one-eleventh of the GST-inclusive price the customer pays — delivery included, when you arrange it (LCR 2018/1, paras 171 and 186). A redeliverer instead adds 10% to the price of the goods and to its own service (para 172; QC 55423).

The arithmetic for a merchant:

	Amount
Hoodie, price to the customer	A$300
Shipping and insurance, arranged by you	A$30
Price the customer pays	A$330
Customs value (for the A$1,000 test only)	A$300
GST = A$330 ÷ 11	A$30

The shipping was ignored for the A$1,000 test and counted for the GST — that is the two-values point from section 2. Where you arrange the delivery and the customer has no genuine choice about the carrier, the delivery is part of a single “composite supply of delivered goods” and takes the same GST treatment as the goods (paras 186–189). The ATO’s own merchant example is the same shape: Electronics Co in China displays a GST-inclusive price, charges A$110, and returns A$10 (QC 52554).

A redeliverer’s sum looks different. On a A$200 coat it charges A$44 for its service (including A$4 GST) plus A$20 GST on the coat — 10% of what the customer paid the shop — and pays A$24 to the ATO (QC 55423).

Three practical points:

Currency. If the customer paid in US dollars or yuan, the consideration is converted to Australian dollars for the GST calculation (para 174).
GST-free goods stay GST-free. Basic food, certain medical aids and appliances and a short list of other items are GST-free in Australia and remain so when sold as low value imported goods (QC 52379). Where an order mixes taxable and GST-free items with one delivery charge, the delivery is apportioned (para 188).
Show one price. Australian consumer law generally expects the total price shown to consumers to include GST — confirm the display rules with your platform or adviser, but in practice a GST-inclusive price is what the ATO’s examples assume.

Then you report it: quarterly online under simplified registration, or on the BAS under standard registration.

Doing it yourself, or not

The free path is real. Simplified GST registration is done online through the ATO’s Online services for non-residents, needs no ABN and no identity documents, and reports quarterly. For a seller who only posts parcels under A$1,000 from overseas and sells through a marketplace that carries the GST, there may be nothing to do at all.

Where a registered tax agent earns its fee is the decision that comes first: which registration. Simplified registration can’t claim a cent of GST credits, and it isn’t available once your stock is in an Australian warehouse — so the seller who starts on it and then sends a pallet to a fulfilment centre discovers, at the first bulk import, that the A$4,000 of GST paid at the border is stuck. Standard registration from overseas means an ABN, with certified identity documents, and a BAS that can’t be lodged electronically from outside Australia. Epic Tax sets that up right the first time — the ABN, the registration that matches where the goods actually sit, the customs document details that keep your customers from paying twice, and the BAS — so the A$1,000 rule works for you from the first parcel, not after a wrong registration has cost a container’s worth of credits. Start at the ABN application.

General information only, current for FY 2026–27 and verified against ato.gov.au (QC 52551, 52553, 52554, 55423, 18025, 67371, 52379) and the consolidated LCR 2018/1 on 22 September 2026. It is not tax advice for your circumstances. Whether a particular marketplace treats itself as responsible for GST depends on its terms — check them. The A$75,000 GST registration threshold is not indexed; confirm the current figure. Epic Tax is a registered tax agent that sets up ABNs, GST registration and BAS lodgment for overseas sellers.