PAYING GST on the full amount of any item bought from large online retailers such as Amazon will add at least £1.1 million a year to the public coffers, according to Treasury Minister Ian Gorst.
Since 1 July, Islanders buying goods online from retailers registered with Revenue Jersey have had to pay the 5% sales tax on the full amount, which is automatically added to the total when they click to purchase.
A total of 23 large online retailers whose annual Jersey-related turnover is above the £300,000 minimum required to charge GST on all online goods have registered to do so.
Firms whose Jersey sales are less than £300,000 per year do not need to register. In this case, online sales costing more than £60 will be held by Customs in Jersey until GST on the full amount is paid by the customer.
The ‘de minimis’ threshold used to be £135 but was reduced to £60 at the beginning of this month.
Answering a written question on how much revenue the changes would net the government, Deputy Gorst said: ‘The expected revenue from extending the obligation to register for GST to all large offshore retailers has previously been conservatively estimated at £1.1m annually.
‘Now that larger offshore retailers have registered for GST and will be filing GST returns from November 2023, Revenue Jersey will have better information on the first full year’s results later in 2025.’
The move has generated a significant backlash from members of the public. As of yesterday, almost 3,000 people had signed a petition in favour of reversing the new policy. As the petition has surpassed 1,000 signatures, ministers will have to issue an official response.
