The GST in Australia

The Goods and Services Tax (GST) in Australia is a Value Added Tax (VAT) on the supply of goods and services in Australia.

It was introduced by the Federal Government with the A New Tax System (Goods and Services Tax) Act 1999, taking effect from July 1 2000. The basic premise of the new tax was to broaden the tax base, which was heavily biased toward the provision of services.

Prior to the GST, Australia operated a Wholesale Sales Tax (WST) which imposed a tax on wholesales of goods. The WST was implemented in the 30's when Australia had an economy dominated by goods. Over the years however, Australia's economy evolved to be more services based, and the GST served to strip the unfair tax advantage that service providing businesses had over suppliers of goods.

The GST is levied at a flat rate of 10% on most goods and services, apart from gst exempt items, and input taxed goods and services.