The Australian government has withdrawn the Decree on Goods and Services Tax (GST) on supplies of digital products made to Australian recipients from non-resident suppliers, with effect from 2 March 2023. This decision was taken due to legislative changes in the A New Tax System (Goods and Services Tax) Act 1999, which now ensures that GST is applied consistently to all supplies of digital products and other imported services to Australian consumers, , so the separate Decree is no longer required. The Goods and Services Tax itself now cover the taxability of remote services and low value imports. It also relieves non-resident suppliers from the obligation to account for GST on certain supplies.
Current ATO view on the GST treatment of a supply of digital products to Australian residents from non-resident suppliers can be found in two rulings: Goods and Services Tax Ruling GSTR 2019/1 and Goods and Services Tax Ruling GSTR 2017/1.
* From the early release of this article it could be understood that Australia would no longer tax GST on digital products from non-resident suppliers. This is not the case. For non-resident taxpayers nothing changes.
Source: ato.gov.au