Selling From NZ to Australia: GST on Both Sides of the Tasman (2026)

New Zealand GST and Australian GST are two different taxes, run by two different agencies, and nothing paid under one can be claimed under the other. A NZ seller shipping to Australian consumers zero-rates the export, so the 15% comes off, and once its sales connected with Australia may reach A$75,000 it charges Australian GST at 1/11 on goods with a customs value of A$1,000 or less. The two rates never stack.

That is the shape of the whole thing: one GST comes off at the border as the other goes on at the checkout. The confusion comes from the fact that the two systems share a name, a design and most of their vocabulary, which makes it very easy to assume that a registration on one side means something on the other. It doesn’t. Below: what’s actually different, the Australian side, the reverse rail, a side-by-side table, and the three trans-Tasman mistakes.

(General information for FY 2026–27, not tax advice for your circumstances. Australian figures were read on 7 October 2026 from the ATO’s non-resident GST and low value imported goods pages; NZ figures from Inland Revenue’s overseas-business pages the same day; the duty position from DFAT’s ANZCERTA page. The A$75,000 threshold is not indexed; confirm the current figure.)

1. Selling from NZ to Australia: what’s actually different about the GST?

Everything except the name. NZ GST is 15%, administered by Inland Revenue, with a NZ$60,000 registration threshold. Australian GST is 10%, administered by the ATO, with an A$75,000 threshold. Each country taxes consumption inside its own borders and relieves exports, so a sale from Auckland to Adelaide is relieved on the NZ side and taxed on the Australian side, and the two returns never touch.

Three things follow for a NZ seller.

Your NZ registration is not an Australian one. The ATO does not recognise a NZ GST number, and Inland Revenue does not recognise an ABN. Each side has its own threshold, its own registration and its own return.
Duty is not in the picture. Under ANZCERTA, since 1 July 1990 all goods meeting the rules of origin cross the Tasman free of duty. So on a NZ-origin consignment the only border cost in Australia is GST and clearance, not duty.
Income tax is a separate question with an easy answer. Under the Australia–NZ treaty, business profits are taxable in Australia only through a permanent establishment, and a warehouse used solely for storage and delivery is not one. Our permanent establishment explainer covers that; this article is GST only.

2. The Australian side: the A$1,000 line and the A$75,000 threshold

Goods shipped direct from NZ to Australian consumers with a customs value of A$1,000 or less are “low value imported goods”. The ATO’s rule: “If you are a non-resident business and you sell goods into Australia with a customs value of A$1,000 or less, GST applies and you will have to collect this from your customer and send the GST to us.” Over A$1,000, “any GST, customs duty and clearance charges are charged to the importer at the border”, and the seller charges nothing.

The pieces that matter:

Customs value. “The price the goods are sold for, minus freight and insurance from the place of export.” The ATO’s example is a pair of jeans sold for A$350 including A$50 shipping and insurance: customs value A$300. Price your goods in A$ and the line is easy to see.

The threshold. Registration is required once your GST turnover from sales connected with Australia reaches A$75,000, on either the current test (this month plus the previous eleven) or the projected test (this month plus the next eleven). Low value goods sold to Australian GST-registered businesses are excluded from that turnover, as are sales not connected with Australia. Below the line you may register voluntarily. The A$75,000 figure is not indexed and may change.

The consignment exception. If several low value items are shipped together with a total customs value over A$1,000, the whole consignment is taxed at the border instead, and you don’t charge GST on that sale. The ATO’s example is two necklaces totalling A$1,400 in one package.

Which registration. A non-resident choosing between the two types:

	Simplified	Standard
Identifier	ATO reference number (ARN)	ABN
GST credits on Australian costs	No	Yes
Tax invoices	No	Yes
Available if you warehouse goods in Australia	No	Yes

“If you hold an ABN, you can’t hold an ATO reference number (ARN)” and the reverse. For a NZ company shipping direct, simplified is the lighter option. For one with stock in Australia it isn’t available: “Simplified GST registration is not available if you are a non-resident business that imports goods and warehouses them in Australia before selling them online, directly or through an electronic distribution platform.” Standard registration on an ABN then also lets you claim the import GST on the bulk consignment. The ABN itself comes through the ABR’s entitlement for businesses outside Australia making supplies connected with Australia; our ABN for foreign companies article covers the application.

Mia. An Auckland company sells merino knitwear through its own Shopify store to Australian consumers: A$180,000 a year, items A$120 to A$400, shipped direct.

	NZ side	Australian side
Treatment	Export, zero-rated	Low value imported goods
Rate	0%	1/11 on every sale
Registration	Existing NZ GST registration	Required: A$180,000 is over A$75,000; simplified (ARN) or standard (ABN)
GST on the year	A$0	A$16,364

A customer who orders four jumpers in one parcel with a customs value of A$1,200 is the exception: that consignment is taxed at the border to the customer, and Mia charges no GST on it.

If Mia moves stock to a Sydney 3PL, the tax doesn’t change but the registration does: standard registration on an ABN, the import GST on each bulk consignment creditable on her BAS, and still no permanent establishment.

3. The reverse: selling goods to New Zealand from Australia

The mirror image. Australian exports are GST-free if the goods leave within 60 days of the earlier of payment or invoice. New Zealand then applies its own low-value regime: from 1 December 2019, overseas businesses selling goods of NZ$1,000 or less to NZ consumers charge 15% once their NZ sales may reach NZ$60,000.

Inland Revenue’s rules are close to Australia’s with the numbers swapped. A low value good is “a physical good valued at NZ$1,000 or less, excluding GST”. A consumer is someone not registered for NZ GST, or registered but buying for personal use. Goods over NZ$1,000 each “have GST and customs duties charged at the border by the New Zealand Customs Service”. The threshold is NZ$60,000 in the last twelve months or expected in the next twelve.

And the stock-in-country rule is the same too. Inland Revenue’s own example is an Australian company, “Kozy Kangaroo Pty Ltd”, selling board games to NZ consumers and bulk-shipping stock to a 3PL depot in Auckland before orders arrive. Its conclusion: “KKPL must register for GST in New Zealand under the domestic rules. KKPL will not be a supplier of low value imported goods. This is because KKPL’s products will already be in New Zealand at the time of supply.”

Tom. A Brisbane company sells camping gear to NZ consumers, NZ$100,000 a year, every item under NZ$1,000, shipped direct. Australian side: exports, GST-free. NZ side: over NZ$60,000, so registered under the low value regime, charging 15% and remitting NZ$13,043 (3/23 of the inclusive price). Stock in an Auckland 3PL would mean ordinary NZ registration instead, with the same rate.

4. GST Australia vs NZ: the side-by-side

	Australia	New Zealand
Rate	10%	15%
Fraction of an inclusive price	1/11	3/23
Registration threshold	A$75,000 (not indexed)	NZ$60,000
Low-value line for direct imports to consumers	A$1,000 customs value (excl. freight and insurance)	NZ$1,000 excl. GST
Low-value regime since	1 July 2018	1 December 2019
Over the line	Taxed at the border to the importer	Taxed at the border by NZ Customs
Stock held in-country via a 3PL	Standard registration on an ABN; simplified unavailable	Ordinary NZ registration; not a low-value supplier
Export relief	GST-free if exported within 60 days of payment or invoice	Zero-rated; entered goods out within 28 days of supply
Non-resident registration types	Simplified (ARN) or standard (ABN)	Five, including low-value, remote services and non-resident claimant
Agency	ATO	Inland Revenue
Claim the other country’s GST in this return?	No	No

The last row is the one to remember. Neither agency gives credit for the other’s tax. Australian GST on an Australian expense is claimable only on an Australian standard registration; NZ GST on a NZ expense only in a NZ return (and a non-resident claimant registration exists in NZ for exactly that case).

5. Does Australia pay NZ GST? The three trans-Tasman mistakes

No. Australia does not charge or collect NZ GST, and NZ GST should not appear on a sale to an Australian customer at all, because the export is zero-rated. What applies to that sale is Australian GST, at 1/11, under the rules in section 2.

The three mistakes we see, in order of cost:

Charging both. A NZ seller leaves 15% on and adds 10% for Australia. Every Australian customer is overcharged by fifteen points, and the NZ GST is paid to Inland Revenue on a sale that should have been zero-rated. The fix is export evidence and a zero-rated line in the NZ return.
Crossing the returns. Putting Australian GST on freight or advertising into the NZ return, or NZ GST into the BAS. Neither agency accepts it. If you have Australian costs worth claiming, that’s the argument for a standard registration on an ABN rather than simplified.
“Already registered.” Treating the NZ registration as covering Australia and never registering with the ATO. Once connected sales pass A$75,000 the liability runs from that point whether or not you registered, at 1/11 of everything you charged.

Where it’s worth getting help

If you ship direct, every item is under A$1,000 and your sales are clearly over or clearly under A$75,000, the free path is short: zero-rate the export on the NZ side, register with the ATO at the right time on the Australian side (simplified if you don’t need credits), charge 1/11, and keep the two returns apart. Many NZ sellers do exactly that.

The judgment calls are these:

Mixed consignments. Orders that combine items over the A$1,000 line, where the border takes over and your checkout has to know not to charge.
Stock in Australia. The moment you warehouse here, simplified is off the table, you need an ABN through the supplies-connected limb, and the import GST becomes worth claiming.
Simplified or standard. Whether the credits on Australian costs justify the ABN and the tax-invoice obligations.
Both directions at once. An Australian and a NZ registration, each with its own threshold, low-value line and export rule, where the easiest error is to book one country’s GST in the other’s return.

That’s the difference between doing it and doing it right the first time: a seller who has over-collected 15% from a year of Australian customers has a refund problem on one side of the Tasman and a late registration on the other.

If you’d like that looked at properly, our initial assessment form scopes it in about twelve questions, including which direction you sell, whether you hold stock, and roughly how much, without needing a meeting.

FY 2026–27. General information, not tax advice for your circumstances. Australian figures from the ATO and NZ figures from Inland Revenue as published at 7 October 2026. The A$75,000 GST registration turnover threshold is not indexed and may change; confirm the current figure before relying on it.