eBay, elephants and Australia

On his Filtered blog, Australia's Mark Jones raises the "elephant in the room" issue for global e-commerce - taxation. The piece concerns " eBay's status as a Switzerland-registered company that does not issue invoices to Australian merchants with GST included". GST is Australia's national sales tax.

A story in today's Australian newspaper, which Jones says picks up on stories he has been writing, opens with the line "EBAY has handed over the personal and financial details of hundreds of its top sellers to the Australian Taxation Office". It goes on to note "At least one seller is known to have gone into liquidation this year after a related ATO probe".

Picture: Banksy