need some advice from t-shirt sellers based in australia.
i have an online store at printmojo, my question/worry is: do i have to get an abn for it even tho it's not in australia, should i register the name Brutal Tees? i ain't selling much now but if i do will i have to pay tax etc? if anyone can shed some light on this it'd be great.
Re: need some advice from t-shirt sellers based in australia.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Brutal Tees
i have an online store at printmojo, my question/worry is: do i have to get an abn for it even tho it's not in australia, should i register the name Brutal Tees?
If your business is small you don't need to register an ABN. Registering the name wouldn't hurt if you plan on expanding.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Brutal Tees
i ain't selling much now but if i do will i have to pay tax etc? if anyone can shed some light on this it'd be great.
Legally you have to declare all income and pay tax on it; it doesn't matter if you're not selling much. You don't have to collect GST unless you're turning over $50k-pa.
Re: need some advice from t-shirt sellers based in australia.
If you're trading under the name, you have to register the name in the state in which you trade. I'm not quite sure how that applies to a Cafe Press store, but if I were you, I'd register it just to be on the safe side. It's only about $75 for 2 years. It also gives you the option of expansion/local production.
Re: need some advice from t-shirt sellers based in australia.
Quote:
Originally Posted by zhenjie
Any sort of business will need an ABN. However, if you trade under $50k a year you dont need to register for GST.
It was my understanding that businesses small enough that they're not required to collect GST are considered hobbies rather than businesses, and that the government discourages (but doesn't prevent) such "businesses" from registering for an ABN.
It's not something I know a lot about though, so I may be wrong.
If your business has an annual turnover of $50,000 or more, you must register for GST and you'll need an ABN to do this. If your business has a lower annual turnover, it's up to you whether you register.
It's not clear whether the optional registration they are referring to is just the GST, or an ABN (which is what I took it to mean at least the first time I read it since that is the context one would be reading the ABN faq for).
Re: need some advice from t-shirt sellers based in australia.
I was a bit iffy myself on this topic a few years back. But my accountant assured me any selling would be deemed a business.
Popular examples of ABN required but no GST registered are freelance webdesigners and graphic artist (ie, t-shirt designer) who do the odd job here and there but generates some sort of income no matter how small.
Re: need some advice from t-shirt sellers based in australia.
zhengie's accountant's advice is the same as mine. I have been running a freelance copyediting/editing business for years, and although I do not - unfortunately - make more than 50K pa from it, and therefore do not need to register for GST, I had to get an ABN number. Of course, there are plenty of folks around who just wouldn't declare their income from small freelance businesses, and obviously these guys don't bother about ABNs. What is required and what people actually do are often two different things.
Re: need some advice from t-shirt sellers based in australia.
"Selling a few Tshirts a week" is clearly different from selling stuff you already own secondhand on Ebay or in a weekend garage sale (unless those "few tshirts" you are disposing of are secondhand goods, and then I guess you wouldn't be doing it a few times per week for very long, would you?). Selling new Tshirts regularly to the public for a profit is a business. A business requires an ABN. Not much more to it.
There is a question, though, as to when a hobby becomes a taxable business, and last I heard from my accountant, this was a grey area. Apparently the tax dept's view (in Aust, anyway) is that you can't claim tax deductions for a hobby unless the hobby is in profit for the year, so I suppose that gives some clue as to when those "few Tshirts" become more than a hobby in the ever scrutinising eyes of Mr Taxman.
Re: need some advice from t-shirt sellers based in australia.
well i think at this stage i might just register the name and wait n see. thanks for all the info. i hope to get it to a profitable business (don't we all, lol).
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need some advice from t-shirt sellers based in australia. 
Re: need some advice from t-shirt sellers based in australia. 
