READ THIS before selling books to Australians!

Last July, Australia changed its sales tax law to level the playing field between international sellers and domestic ones. Previously, Australia’s sales tax, the GST (Goods and Services Tax), was not collected on physical items purchased outside Australia for less than AUS $1000 (“low-value goods”) and imported by the consumer. This allowed Australians to save money by buying off international websites, especially ones that provided free shipping or a price low enough to offset the shipping costs. But it also hurt those Australian businesses that do have to charge sales Read More …

Kindle expands into Australia

Amazon is continuing their aggressive expansion of specified Kindle territories, opening kdp.Amazon.com.au. For Australian authors, this means Amazon can now convert your worldwide royalties to Australian dollars and pay into your local bank account (New Zealand authors can only be paid by cheque or wire transfer). For non-Australian authors, this means yet another territory and currency that Amazon will be keeping your royalties for until you meet the minimum threshold (the EFT threshold is, surprisingly, $0.00, but those authors paid by cheque must meet a AUS $100.00 or NZD $100.00 Read More …