Selling through a marketplace usually changes nothing about your GST. An Australian seller shipping goods from within Australia charges, reports and pays the GST on their own sales once registered: eBay, Amazon and Etsy don't do it for you. The electronic distribution platform (EDP) rules make the platform responsible only for low-value imported goods ($1,000 or less) and imported services and digital products sold to Australian consumers; goods located in Australia are expressly carved out. Every marketplace sale counts toward the $75,000 registration threshold at the full sale price, before the platform's fees come out. The one thing the platforms do tax is their own seller fees: 10% GST until you give them your ABN and confirm you're GST-registered.
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The platform myth, and where it came from
In the United States, marketplace facilitator laws really do make Amazon and eBay collect sales tax on sellers' behalf, and that idea travels better than the detail does. Australia took a narrower path. Since 2017–18, the GST law treats an electronic distribution platform operator as the supplier of certain sales made through it, but the list is short: imported services and digital products sold to Australian consumers, and low-value imported goods of $1,000 or less. Both are aimed at overseas merchants the ATO would otherwise struggle to collect from. The ATO's ruling on the rules (LCR 2018/2) puts the other side beyond doubt: a platform is not responsible for GST on goods sourced from within Australia.
So the GST line your buyer sees at checkout on an order shipped from Shenzhen is the platform meeting its obligation on an import: it says nothing about yours. If your stock sits in your garage, your warehouse or an Australian fulfilment centre, a marketplace sale is your sale: taxable if you're registered, carrying no GST only because you're under the threshold if you're not. Either way, nobody else is remitting it for you.
| The sale | Who's responsible for the GST? |
|---|---|
| Australian seller, goods shipped from within Australia (home, warehouse or local fulfilment) | You, if you're registered; no GST applies if you're not required to be |
| Overseas merchant, imported goods worth $1,000 or less, sold to an Australian consumer via a platform | The platform: GST added at checkout |
| Imported goods over $1,000, any seller | Nobody at the checkout: GST is collected at the border from the importer |
| Imported services or digital products sold to Australian consumers via a platform | The platform |
| Digital products or services where seller and platform signed a written agreement before the sale | The platform: by agreement, physical goods excluded |
Your turnover is the full sale price: on every channel
GST turnover is gross business income, not what lands in your bank account. A $100 eBay sale counts as $100 toward the $75,000 threshold even though eBay kept its final value fee and you banked $86: the fee is your expense, not a discount on your sale. And the threshold belongs to you as an entity, not to each store: the Etsy shop, the eBay account, the Shopify site and the Saturday market stall all share one running total. Sellers watching a single dashboard routinely cross $75,000 without noticing, because no one platform ever showed them the combined number.
The test is rolling, and it looks both ways: the past 11 months plus the current one, or the month you're in plus a reasonable projection of the next 11. The day the rolling or projected figure reaches $75,000, the 21-day clock to register starts. The narrow exception written into the law (sales a platform is responsible for don't count toward the merchant's turnover) is real, but for an Australian seller of physical goods shipped locally it covers essentially nothing.
One genuine boundary worth knowing: private sales aren't turnover at all. Clearing the garage, selling your old phone, offloading furniture: that's not an enterprise, and no volume of it triggers registration. The line moves when you buy or make things in order to sell them. From that point you're a business, and the counting starts.
Pricing and invoices once you're registered
Marketplace prices are GST-inclusive by design: eBay's Australian policy requires listed prices to include any GST that applies, and no platform lets you bolt 10% onto an order after it's been won or bought. So registration does to a marketplace seller exactly what it does to anyone else with published prices: the 10% comes out of your existing sticker unless you reprice. A $75,000-turnover seller who registers without repricing hands roughly $6,800 a year to the ATO out of their old margins: repricing on the way through the threshold is the planning that avoids it.
The paperwork stays yours too. A registered seller must give a buyer a tax invoice for any sale over $82.50 within 28 days of being asked: the platform's order confirmation email doesn't automatically satisfy the requirements, so check what your platform generates and fill the gap yourself if it falls short. On the BAS, marketplace sales are reported like any other taxable sales, at the full sale price, with your fees, postage and stock claimed as credits against them on the timing your accounting method sets.
GST on the platform's own fees: give them your ABN
Here the tables turn: on its fees, the platform is the supplier and you are the customer. eBay, Amazon and Etsy are non-resident businesses registered for Australian GST, so final value fees, referral fees, listing fees and store subscriptions charged to an Australian seller carry 10% GST by default: the same regime that puts GST on Google Ads and Facebook Ads. The default assumes you're a consumer. A GST-registered business isn't one: supply your ABN in your seller account settings and confirm you're registered, and the platform stops charging GST on its fees altogether.
Don't shrug and plan to claim it back instead: you often can't. Non-resident platforms operating under the ATO's simplified GST registration hold an ARN rather than an ABN, and the scheme's terms are blunt: they cannot issue tax invoices, and their customers cannot claim GST credits on what they're charged. GST paid on fees under that system is simply a cost. The remedy runs through the platform, not the BAS: lodge your ABN, and ask the platform to refund any GST charged on fees after your registration date; the major ones have a process for exactly this.
The ATO already sees marketplace sales
If the quiet plan is to stay under the radar, know that the radar is specifically pointed at marketplaces. Under the online selling data-matching program, the ATO collects seller account records each year directly from the platforms (eBay Australia and New Zealand and Amazon's Australian arm are named data providers), covering sellers whose annual sales pass roughly $12,000. The records run to identity details, account and payment information and sales values, and they're matched against income tax returns, ABN records and GST registrations to find exactly two people: the hobbyist who became a business without telling anyone, and the business that crossed $75,000 without registering.
If that second one is you, the order of operations matters. Backdating your registration to the date you should have registered (up to 4 years) and lodging the catch-up BAS voluntarily is treated very differently from the same numbers surfacing in a data-matching review, and the credits on your stock, fees and postage along the way soften the bill. A correction you initiate is admin; one the ATO initiates is a problem.
Quick answers
Do I charge GST on my eBay, Amazon or Etsy sales?
If you're an Australian seller shipping goods from within Australia and you're registered for GST, yes: the GST on those sales is yours to report and pay, exactly as if the buyer had walked into your shop. The marketplace is a shopfront and a payment collector, not the supplier: Australia's electronic distribution platform rules expressly leave goods located in Australia with the merchant. If you're not registered and your turnover is under $75,000, your sales carry no GST at all, but nobody is collecting it on your behalf either way.
Doesn't the marketplace collect GST for me?
Only in narrow cases that mostly concern overseas sellers. A platform is treated as the supplier (and remits the GST itself) for low-value imported goods ($1,000 or less) sold to Australian consumers, for imported services and digital products sold to Australian consumers, and for digital products or services where the platform and the merchant have signed a written agreement before the sale. That's why eBay and Amazon add GST at checkout on orders shipped from overseas. None of it applies to goods that are already in Australia when you sell them: a Melbourne seller posting from Melbourne is responsible for their own GST, however the order was placed.
Do marketplace sales count toward the $75,000 GST threshold?
Yes, at the full sale price, not your payout. GST turnover is your gross business income, so a $100 sale counts as $100 even if the platform kept $15 in fees before paying you out. All your channels add together, because the threshold belongs to you as an entity, not to each store: eBay plus Etsy plus your own website plus the market stall is one running total. The only sales that don't count are ones the platform itself is responsible for under the electronic distribution platform rules, which for a seller shipping goods from within Australia is essentially none of them.
Is there GST on eBay, Amazon and Etsy seller fees?
By default, yes. The major marketplaces are non-resident businesses registered for Australian GST, so they add 10% to final value fees, referral fees, listing fees and store subscriptions charged to Australian sellers. Once you're registered for GST, tell the platform: supply your ABN and confirm your registration in your seller account settings, and the fees stop carrying GST; the supply to a GST-registered business isn't a consumer sale, so the platform no longer has to tax it. Every major platform has this setting, and it's the single cheapest piece of admin a registered seller can do.
Can I claim GST credits on marketplace seller fees?
Usually there's nothing to claim, and that's the trap. Once you've supplied your ABN and confirmed you're GST-registered, the platform stops charging GST on its fees, so there's no credit to recover. If you haven't, the GST you're paying on fees is generally not claimable anyway: platforms under the ATO's simplified GST registration for non-residents operate with an ARN rather than an ABN, and they cannot issue tax invoices, which a credit over $82.50 requires. The fix isn't on your BAS: it's updating your seller account with your ABN, then asking the platform to refund GST charged after your registration date.
I just sell my old stuff online: do I need to register for GST?
No. GST registration only attaches to an enterprise: a business or business-like activity. Clearing out the garage, selling your old phone or offloading a wardrobe on eBay or Facebook Marketplace is a private sale, no matter the dollar value, and it never counts toward the $75,000 threshold. The line moves when you start buying or making things in order to sell them: sourcing stock, flipping items for profit, listing regularly with an intention to make money. That's an enterprise, those sales count toward the threshold, and once your rolling 12-month turnover hits $75,000 you have 21 days to register.
Does the ATO know about my marketplace sales?
Yes. Under its online selling data-matching program the ATO collects account records each year from the major marketplaces (eBay Australia and New Zealand and Amazon's Australian arm are named providers) covering sellers whose sales pass roughly $12,000 a year. The data includes identity details, account information and sales values, and it's matched against tax returns, ABN records and GST registrations to find sellers who've quietly become a business, or crossed $75,000, without registering. If your marketplace sales and your lodgments tell different stories, the ATO is positioned to notice before you do.
I passed $75,000 a while ago and never registered: what now?
Register now and backdate it to the date you should have registered: the ATO allows backdating up to 4 years. You'll owe GST on the taxable sales since that date, which stings on marketplace prices you can't retroactively raise, but you also get to claim GST credits on stock, fees, postage and equipment bought along the way, and coming forward voluntarily puts you in a far better position on penalties than waiting for a data-matching letter. Registering is free through the ATO's own online services; our BAS-agent service is $119 + GST if you'd rather have it reviewed and lodged for you, with backdating up to 4 years +$25 + GST.
Related guides: GST on agency and consignment sales · GST on imports · GST on exports · GST for Shopify stores · Crossing the $75,000 threshold · GST with two or more businesses · Tax invoice requirements · Backdating GST registration
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Reviewed and lodged by Registered BAS Agent 25972850 · $119 + GST, tax deductible · backdating up to 4 years +$25 + GST · free help on 1800 546 526.