GST (goods and services tax) and online selling in Australia

GST does not treat an online sale differently from a sale made in a physical shop — the same registration threshold and the same rate apply regardless of the channel. The price-display rule needs more care than that, because it is not a GST rule at all: it comes from the Australian Consumer Law, and it does not reach every sale. Section 48 applies to a price representation connected with a supply of goods or services of a kind ordinarily acquired for personal, domestic or household use or consumption, and it separately excludes representations made exclusively to a body corporate. A consumer retail store is squarely inside it; a wholesale or trade-only store selling to businesses may well not be. “Online selling” spans both, so the rule is not the flat one it is often described as. Where genuine complexity enters is at the border: sales to overseas customers, and low-value goods imported into Australia, each have their own treatment that a purely domestic retailer doesn’t need to think about.

The baseline that doesn’t change online

Situation	GST treatment
Domestic sale, business registered for GST	GST applies at the standard rate, same as an in-person sale
Domestic sale, business below the registration threshold	No GST charged, same as an in-person sale below the threshold
Price displayed to a consumer	Must be the GST-inclusive total under s 48 of the Australian Consumer Law, where a single price is stated — subject to s 48 reaching the supply at all, which turns on the kind of goods and whether the representation is made exclusively to a body corporate

Where it genuinely differs: exports, imported goods, and when you charge GST or claim GST credits

Selling to a customer physically located overseas can qualify as a GST-free export under specific conditions set out in GST law. The conditions matter. Getting them wrong can mean charging GST where you shouldn’t, or failing to charge it where you should have. Separately, the low-value imported goods regime is narrower than its name suggests, and it is routinely mistaken for something it is not. It targets the overseas seller — a non-resident merchant, an electronic distribution platform, or a redeliverer — sending goods valued at A$1,000 or less directly to an Australian customer. If you are an Australian business importing stock into a local warehouse and then selling it here, that is not this regime. GST is charged at the border under the ordinary import rules, and is generally recoverable as an input tax credit if you are registered. The dropship model, where goods ship straight to the customer from overseas, is the one that puts you inside it. Neither of these is a domain a website can resolve on its own. They are accounting and tax questions to settle with a professional before pricing is finalised, not technical settings to configure and forget.

Why GST-inclusive price display matters more online than it might seem

Section 48 of the Australian Consumer Law requires that where a single price is stated, it must be the total payable including GST — this applies to a product listing exactly as it applies to a website design quote. An online store showing an exclusive-of-GST price with GST calculated only at checkout, after the customer has already committed through several steps of a purchase flow, risks both a compliance problem and a genuine conversion problem. An unexpected price increase late in checkout is one of the most common reasons a cart is abandoned.

Configuring a platform correctly

Most mainstream ecommerce platforms support GST-inclusive pricing as a configuration option. Getting this set correctly at the outset avoids both the compliance risk and the cart-abandonment risk in one setting. That is better than displaying exclusive prices and adding GST later in checkout. Confirm with whoever builds your store that GST-inclusive display is the default your specific platform and theme are actually using. Some templates default to exclusive pricing, depending on the store’s regional settings.

Register GST: the GST turnover threshold and the ATO question

Whether your business needs to be registered for GST at all depends on the standard turnover threshold that applies to any Australian business, not a separate ecommerce-specific figure. This site does not state the current threshold, because a figure that goes stale is worse than none. Confirm the current threshold and your business’s position against it with the ATO or your accountant, particularly as your online sales grow.

Tax invoices, and what an online store needs to generate one correctly

Where a sale is subject to GST, a customer is generally entitled to a tax invoice showing the GST component for purchases above a defined threshold. For lower-value purchases, a simpler receipt showing the GST-inclusive price is generally sufficient. Confirm your ecommerce platform generates receipts and invoices in the correct format automatically. Manually producing compliant tax invoices for every online sale at any meaningful volume is not a sustainable manual process.

Digital products and services — a further layer of nuance

Selling digital products — downloads, software, online courses — carries the same domestic GST rules as physical goods. But the export and import treatment for digital products specifically has its own considerations. These are distinct from physical goods crossing a border. A download doesn’t pass through customs the way a parcel does. If digital products form part of your catalogue, this is worth raising specifically with your accountant. Do not assume the physical-goods export and import rules apply identically.

Record-keeping and accounting obligations for Australian businesses under GST registration

A GST-registered business has record-keeping obligations attached to every taxable sale. An ecommerce platform’s transaction history is generally the primary record relied on for this. Confirm your chosen platform retains transaction records for the period required. Confirm they’re also exportable in a format your accounting software or accountant can actually use. It’s better to check this now than to discover a gap at tax time.

Why price display consistency matters across every page, not just the product page

The GST-inclusive pricing requirement applies everywhere a price is stated — product listings, cart summaries, order confirmation emails and invoices alike. A store that displays GST-inclusive pricing on product pages but reverts to an exclusive figure somewhere in the checkout flow creates exactly the late-stage price-increase experience covered on checkout and cart abandonment. Audit the entire purchase journey for consistency. Do not just check the page a customer first sees.

What changes if your business is not yet GST-registered

A business below the GST registration threshold should not charge or display GST-inclusive pricing as though GST applies, since doing so would misrepresent the actual tax treatment of the sale. If your registration status changes — crossing the threshold as the business grows — your pricing display needs to be updated at that point, not left showing outdated pre-registration pricing logic.

What to do next

Confirm your GST registration position, your platform’s GST-inclusive pricing configuration, and — if relevant — your export and import GST treatment with an accountant before your store launches, not after your first quarter’s sales are already booked incorrectly.

Correct tax configuration is exactly the kind of setup work reflected in what makes an online store cost more than a bare template.