ReShopMe Limited — GST Policy
Version 1.0 · Effective 10 August 2026
1. Purpose and scope
This policy states how Goods and Services Tax is charged, collected, withheld, invoiced and remitted across ReShopMe, under the Goods and Services Tax Act 1985 (New Zealand) and A New Tax System (Goods and Services Tax) Act 1999 (Australia). It applies to every sale concluded on the marketplace, every fee we charge, and every credit we sell. It does not cover income tax or customs duty.
Two things are true at once throughout, and are never conflated:
- The goods are supplied by the seller to the buyer. We do not take title.
- The money passes through us. We are the merchant of record: we take the buyer's payment, hold it, and release it.
2. Our status
New Zealand. ReShopMe Limited is a New Zealand resident company, registered for GST, operating an electronic marketplace and acting as merchant of record for every transaction. Our own supplies — commission, fees and prepaid credit — are standard-rated supplies of services made in New Zealand at 15%.
Australia. We operate as a non-resident operator of an electronic distribution platform for the purposes of the low value imported goods rules, under a standard GST registration. We collect Australian GST only where, and from when, we hold that registration.
We do not become the supplier of the goods by handling the money. We become the supplier only where a statute deems it — see section 5.
3. Three separate taxes, never mixed
A sale can involve up to three separate taxes. They are recorded separately, reconciled separately, and never netted against each other in a return:
- GST on the goods — the seller's output tax, where the seller is registered and trading. We withhold it from the seller's proceeds and remit it (section 10).
- GST on our fee — our own output tax. We charge it, declare it and remit it.
- GST our payment processor charges us — our input tax. We recover it as part of the cost of the sale and reclaim it (section 7).
Worked example — a NZ$100 sale by a GST-registered apparel business, domestic card:
| Buyer pays | NZ$100.00 |
| Commission 10% | −NZ$10.00 |
| Payment processing recovered (2.65%) | −NZ$2.65 |
| Fixed fee | −NZ$1.00 |
| GST on our service | −NZ$1.61 |
| GST charged to us on processing, recovered | −NZ$0.45 |
| Total fee | −NZ$15.71 |
| Goods GST withheld and remitted to Inland Revenue (15/115, rounded up) | −NZ$13.05 |
| Seller receives | NZ$71.24 |
Rounding. Tax always rounds up to the cent, and the net is derived by subtraction so the parts always sum to what the buyer paid.
Prices are tax-inclusive. The listed price is what the buyer pays. A seller's tax position never changes a price a shopper has already seen — only how that price breaks down on the invoice. The one exception is import GST on a cross-border parcel, which is added at checkout (section 5).
Shipping is our supply, not the seller's. We arrange carriage and keep the shipping charge, so postage carries our GST treatment and never enters the goods-GST calculation.
4. GST on the goods — who charges it
The condition of the goods decides nothing. Who is selling, and what business they are in, decides everything. A registered vintage dealer's forty-year-old coat is a taxable supply; a private seller's brand-new unworn dress is not.
| Seller | GST on the goods? |
|---|---|
| Private seller clearing their own items | No — not a taxable activity |
| GST-registered business in another trade, clearing occasional items | No — incidental, outside its taxable activity, and declared as such |
| GST-registered business trading in apparel — second-hand, new, retail or outlet | Yes — at the rate of the place of consumption (section 5), withheld and remitted by us |
| Unregistered business or emerging brand — domestic sale | No — an unregistered person's domestic supply of goods carries no GST, and a marketplace cannot create one |
| Any seller — cross-border parcel into NZ or AU at or under the threshold | Import GST applies, charged by us as deemed supplier (section 5), whatever the seller's own status |
| Any seller shipping outside NZ and AU | No NZ or AU GST — a zero-rated export |
| Endorsed charity or non-profit selling donated stock | No — relieved (GST-free in Australia under s 38-255; an exempt supply in New Zealand under s 14(1)(b)) |
No large-seller opt-out. Both regimes contemplate agreements under which a large seller, rather than the marketplace, accounts for GST. We do not offer this: the buyer pays us and we issue the document, and two documents for one supply would leave neither reliable.
Charities. The relief applies to donated stock. A charity also selling bought-in stock must declare as a trading business and account for the lot. The relief is personal to the charity and does not extend to a cross-border parcel on which we are the deemed supplier.
5. Cross-border sales
Where the low value imported goods rules apply, we are the supplier. The law deems the marketplace operator to have made the supply, so the GST on a qualifying cross-border parcel is our own liability on our own supply — the seller's position does not change, and nothing is withheld from them. Their own sale is a zero-rated export.
GST follows consumption: the rate is set by the buyer's delivery address, not by where the seller is.
The thresholds. Both regimes stop at a value ceiling, above which the border takes over: goods with a customs value of NZ$1,000 or less into New Zealand, or A$1,000 or less into Australia, tested per item. Above it, customs assesses GST and any duty on arrival and we must not charge. A consignment containing any over-threshold item is assessed at the border as a whole.
The delivery term follows the tax:
| Consignment | We charge | Term |
|---|---|---|
| Into NZ or AU, every item at or under the threshold, and we hold that country's registration | Destination GST, added at checkout | DDP — delivered duty-paid; nothing further is payable on delivery |
| Any item over the threshold | Nothing | DDU — the buyer is told before paying that import charges are payable to the carrier |
| Into NZ or AU where we hold no registration there | Nothing | DDU |
| Outside NZ and AU | Nothing | DDU — any destination charges are between the buyer and their customs service |
Import GST is added, not extracted. It is our tax on our deemed supply, so it appears as its own line at checkout on top of the listed price. It is not carved out of the seller's price — the seller usually owes nothing on the parcel — and our commission is charged on the goods, not on the tax.
The buyer sees which treatment applies in the cart before paying and again on the receipt.
Currency. Australian GST is accounted for in Australian dollars. Where conversion is required, we use a single published daily rate source applied consistently, converted at the date of supply, with the rate recorded on the order.
6. GST on our own fees
Our fee is a supply of services by us, treated by where the seller is:
| Seller | Our fee |
|---|---|
| New Zealand, registered or not | 15% New Zealand GST |
| Australia, not GST-registered | 10% Australian GST |
| Australia, GST-registered business | No GST charged by us; the recipient reverse-charges if required |
| Outside New Zealand and Australia | Per the destination's rules |
The GST base is our genuine service: commission plus our margin on the fixed fee. Payment-processing amounts recovered at cost are pass-throughs and carry no GST of ours. Prepaid credit for our content tools is a supply of services by us, priced GST-inclusive. The Checkout Plus Advantage fee is likewise our own supply and its advertised price is GST-inclusive: the GST component is part of the stated fee, not an addition to it.
7. Payment processing GST
Our payment processor's rates are GST-exclusive, and the GST it charges on its fees is our input tax. We recover the amount as part of the cost of the sale and reclaim it against the processor's invoice. It is recorded per payout so the reclaim can be evidenced, and it is never netted against our own output tax.
8. Information we require from sellers
At onboarding, before first payout, and re-confirmed on any change, sellers declare: who is supplying (the person or entity), where they are tax resident, whether they are GST-registered and in which country, their registration number, and what they are doing here — trading in this line of goods, disposing of occasional items outside their usual business, or selling donated stock as a charity.
The declaration drives the tax. A declaration of registered status without a registration number is treated as untaxed, because a tax invoice without a supplier number is not a valid tax invoice. We may require evidence of registration and of activity, may re-characterise a declaration the account's trading does not support, and may recover any resulting shortfall as our Terms provide.
9. Invoices and taxable supply information
New Zealand requires taxable supply information; Australia requires a tax invoice for supplies over A$82.50. We satisfy both with one document per seller per order:
- One document per seller. A multi-seller order carries one block per seller.
- Only a document that carries tax is headed "Tax invoice". Everything else is a receipt — a private sale's receipt does not assert a taxable supply that never happened.
- No courtesy GST lines. A GST-registered buyer seeking relief on an untaxed second-hand purchase claims a second-hand goods input credit with the revenue authority directly; an invented GST line would break that claim.
- Where we are the deemed supplier on a cross-border parcel, the document names ReShopMe Limited as the supplier for GST purposes, with our registration number.
- Documents are frozen at purchase. A later rate change, de-registration or re-categorisation never rewrites a document already issued; adjustments are made by credit note.
10. Withholding and payout
Where the goods carry the seller's GST, we withhold it from the proceeds and remit it ourselves. On a NZ$100 taxable item we hold back NZ$13.05 (15/115 of the achieved price, rounded up), capped at the seller's net so a payout can never go negative. We give the seller a record of every amount withheld for their own return. Withheld amounts are not our money at any point and are never treated as working capital.
11. Monitoring
We monitor account volumes. An account whose declared activity its trading does not support — an "occasional" seller trading at business volume — is reviewed, and the declaration may be re-characterised under section 8. Review thresholds are set and varied by us from time to time.
12. Filing and records
| New Zealand | Australia | |
|---|---|---|
| Return | GST return | Business Activity Statement |
| Frequency | Two-monthly | Quarterly |
| Basis | Invoice (accrual) | As registered |
We keep records for seven years, the longer of the two jurisdictions' requirements. Our own return reports our service income and input tax; goods GST withheld under section 10 is remitted as tax collected on the seller's behalf and is not reported as our income.
13. Refunds and claims
A refund reverses the supply, and every layer reverses with it: on a full refund the goods GST returns to where it came from and our fee GST is credited; on a partial refund the goods GST is recomputed on the reduced price. A claim we fund ourselves under the Refunds & Returns Policy is not a reversal of the seller's supply and does not adjust the seller's GST. Any adjustment to a document already issued is made by credit note or amended taxable supply information — the original is never edited.
14. Glossary
DDP — delivered duty-paid; nothing further is payable on delivery. DDU — delivered duty-unpaid; the buyer settles import charges with the carrier. Deemed supplier — the marketplace operator treated by law as making the supply on a qualifying cross-border parcel. Taxable supply information — New Zealand's replacement for the term "tax invoice" since 1 April 2023.