yeah, FedEx are straight crooks. It only took 3 weeks to get a private ruling in my favour issued and it was free, I mostly cut n pasted the text from post i found on here FedEx themselves actually took almost 2 months to refund my money once they received the ruling. There is basically no other way to get around it, the ATO even said they have no control over whether FedEx choose to charge GST or not but they can issue a ruling that indicates that the products are GST free. When i spoke to the ATO on the phone the first time, they told me within about 90 seconds that no GST was due but i had no choice but to pay the money and go through the process. The simplest solution is to just boycott FedEx entirely. I insist on using UPS now when i make imports over $1000.
Blockhead - are you sure its UPS you use and not USPS? I've read (on this forum) that UPS are also problematic, but that USPS are great because it ends up being processed by Australia Post on this side and there are never any issues then with GST
UPS (as in United Parcel Service) are fine - their customs agents know their stuff when it comes to bullion.
^ what our glourious leader just said. UPS and USPS are both your preferred couriers.. USPS the United States Postal Service, and UPS the private courier company. Fed Ex and apparently DHL are problematic though i can only speak first hand about Fed Ex.
There are two problems with doing that: 1) The millions of people who watch ACA/TT don't currently buy bullion and therefore don't care if a handful of tin-foil hat wearing weirdos have a few issues with FexEx administration when they try to import some silly coins. 2) Mentioning precious metals in such a big public forum will bring more awareness to precious metals and, after a bit of research, more people will want to buy them as a result. ACA/TT have just told everyone that there are major hassles trying to import them, so most of those new people will try to buy from local dealers. The reason people here are trying to buy from overseas is because local dealers are out of stock and have long waiting times for orders. Is the local situation likely to be improved by (indirectly) encouraging a whole bunch of n00bs to buy locally? At best, nobody give a toss and at worst it screws things up even more for all Australian stackers, either waiting longer for local dealers or incurring extra expenses getting stuff shipped in from overseas. Better to get the ATO to threaten them and have the whole thing sorted out quietly. The ATO must have wasted tens of thousands of dollars churning out unnecessary private rulings for FedEx customers.
Mate - i have to admit that what you say makes a whole lot of sense... it was just my anger talking ... didnt give it enough thought! I'm just alarmed that the ATO are not interested in taking FEDEX on about it and simply state "there is nothing we can do about it" I guess them wasting tons of money on this issue is of no consequence because as with all government departments - they're not dealing with their own money, but rather that stolen from taxpayers...
Actually i randomly ran into an old friend who used to work as a bouncer at a nightclub a long time ago and due to an incident and a drunk guy lying to the police, he lost his security license. Really chilled out peaceful bruce lee type cat into martial arts and meditation and stuff. Anyway, i ran into him at a chinese restaurant back at easter after not seeing him for a few years and it turns out he works for the ATO now. I told him about the whole private ruling thing and how quickly it was processed and he said that that particular section of the ATO don't actually have a lot of work to do day to day and usually get excited when they get a ruling in the mail to work on. I even got a phone call from the woman handling my ruling requesting extra information and i must say she was particularly helpful. Just a random observation to add some colour to the discussion...
I'll make sure none of my silver money goes anyone using Fedex (Apmex)?. It would make a great scam for fedex to pick up the gst filling in the forms after some ones paid them.
Well I have cooled off now, I tried the nice email first but I have a lengthier nastier one that I will use if the first one fails
I have done this a number of times with big boys being stubborn.I draft a short concise statement for a sign writer to be able to fit on a fold out billboard and get a quote then take that quote into head office and tell them flat out that I have a thermos and esky and will sit out the front of their building with the bill board for the rest of the week. Hasn't failed yet. For example Fedex charged me 2000 dollars for a fee the ATO said I didn't have to pay. REDBACK
Keep in mind that FexEx doesn't keep the GST, any GST they charge they have to send to the ATO. It is up to each business to work out what GST to charge and collect and send to ATO, and the ATO will only pick up GST irregularities in an audit. From FedEx employee point of view, if they incorrectly don't charge GST, they get in trouble with ATO, if they incorrectly charge GST they don't get in trouble with ATO only the customer, so from arse covering point of view it is better to charge GST if in doubt and make the customer prove GST is not chargable. One way to get FedEx to change is to get to appropriate highest level boss in FedEx and explain that the time spent by their employees in charging GST, collecting it from customer, paying to ATO, then dealing with customer request for refund and then processing refund to customer likely outweights the profit they made on the freight. It would therefore same them money if they just trained their staff correctly in which precious metal is bullion vs numismatic in the first place.
Well I have to get a private ruling from the Tax Office, it appears they can't use common sense. More bureaucratic shit basically. It's probably going to take me months to get this $2500 back, plus having to pay 2.5k out of nowhere hasn't helped. I think what's pissed me off most is my usual $3000 emergency fund was tempoarirly drained for a holiday. Lol. The rest is in the sharemarket or Silver. I HATE asking for a loan from my family - even if it is just for a week.
What A-h**ls ,which company did you get your silver through that used Fedex? so we don't ever use them, Gainsville and Apmex look like they use UPS.
I actually wrote a bit of a spiel to fedex when i got my refund back along the lines of 'i network online with a community of bullion importers', 'there is a finite range of bullion products that are GST exempt and it would not take a great deal of effort to research them', 'do not underestimate the power of word of mouth, you could actually position yourself as the courier company of choice if word got out that you correctly processed these shipments' etc etc. I got a reply to the effect of 'we have passed on your comments to our customs brokers for consideration and research' that was the last i heard of it.
from memory the mob that makes those stacker bars use fedex i decided not to get any because of the headache fedex causes UPS FTW!
This is what i just got from them. I'm a bit sick of it now. What are my avenues. private ATO ruling? Take them to court? surely if i get the ruling I will get my money back. hi, Have reviewed your dispute and unfortunately our position is unchanged. Please see below reason for our decision. There is a common misconception that this product is 'bullion'. It is in fact 'legal tender' as stated by the United States Mint's website: http://www.usmint.gov/mint_programs/american_eagles/index.cfm?action=ame rican_eagle_silver Furthermore, to be GST exempt, the ATO states that you must be a licensed dealer. Also, the items should have a trading value related to a 'spot price' of the metal it contains. Neither of these two criteria are applicable in this case to be eligible for GST exemption. Please refer to paragraphs 12, 16 and 38 of the attached ATO URL: http://law.ato.gov.au/atolaw/view.htm?docid=GST/GSTR200310/NAT/ATO/00001 FedEx has an obligation under the Customs Act to ensure we assess and collect duties and taxes correctly on behalf of the Commonwealth. If we do not do so, we jeopardise our license to act as a Customs Broker, and also expose the customer to liability in future audits by the Australian Customs & Border Protection Service. If other Brokers advise that they would enter this commodity as GST exempt, that is their prerogative, but that does not make it a correct assessment based on our understanding of the GST ruling and the reasons I have outlined above. regards, some manager
Surely if they are treating it as "legal tender" and not bullion then the legal tender value is what would be be taxible (or since it's not a "good" anymore just "money" no tax at all). Reeks of double standards and arse covering.
