Selling goods without a physical presence in Australia

Treaty countries

This section applies to you if:

• you are a resident entity of a country that has a tax treaty with Australia
• you export goods to Australia without having a physical presence in Australia, such as an agent, subsidiary or permanent establishment, and
• you don't employ staff in Australia.

Under these circumstances you will have the following tax obligations:

• Income tax – You will not be liable to pay Australian income tax. Income tax only applies if you have an Australian permanent establishment.
• Capital gains tax (CGT) – You will not be liable to pay CGT. CGT only applies to assets that are taxable Australian assets.
• Goods and services tax (GST) – You may be liable for GST. GST is a broad-based tax of 10% on most goods, services and other items sold or consumed in Australia.
• Superannuation, PAYG withholding and fringe benefits tax (FBT) – As you don't have employees, you won't have any of these obligations.
• Other tax obligations – If you are exporting goods to Australia by selling to an Australian resident entity on a free on board (FOB) basis, this may be considered an importation by the Australian entity. This means you may not have any Australian tax obligations – rather, your Australian customer will have tax obligations relating to the importation.

You will need to register for an Australian business number (ABN).

Non-treaty countries

This section applies to you if:

• you are a resident entity of a country that does not have a tax treaty with Australia
• you export goods to Australia without having a physical presence in Australia, such as an agent, subsidiary or permanent establishment
• you don't employ staff in Australia.

Under these circumstances, you will have the following tax obligations:

• Income tax – You may be liable to pay income tax. You need to work out the source of your income, as this will determine how you are taxed.
• Goods and services tax (GST) – You may be liable for GST. GST is a broad-based tax of 10% on most goods, services and other items sold or consumed in Australia.
• Superannuation, PAYG withholding and fringe benefits tax (FBT) – As you don't have employees, you won't have any of these obligations.
• Other tax obligations – If you are exporting goods to Australia by selling to an Australian resident entity on a FOB basis, this may be considered an importation by the Australian entity. This means you may not have Australian tax obligations – rather, your Australian customer will have tax obligations relating to the importation.

You will need to register for an Australian business number (ABN).

See also:

• Doing business in Australia
• Tax treaties
• Australian GST registration for non-residents
• Australian business number (ABN) for non-residents