I am a technician in a very small field
I was contracted by an australian company to train 4 people overseas.
All flights and accomodation were paid for by the australian company
I was required to wear the australian companies uniform, not my own - essentially treated as an employee as far as the overseas company was concerned
I charged the customer gst on my per day fee and my per diem as I thought I was required to as a gst registered company billing a gst registered company in autralia.
My understanding was I was providing them the service of my skills.
I have been advised that I cannot charge gst see below. Is this correct please
The application of GST to services provided outside of Australia by an Australian entity can be a grey area. However, under section 9-25 of the GST Act, a service must be connected with Australia to be considered a taxable supply.
A supply is considered connected with Australia if:
- The services are performed in Australia; or
- The supplier is carrying on an enterprise in Australia and the recipient is in Australia – unless the supply qualifies as an export of services.
Based on the information you've provided, it appears the services were performed entirely outside Australia and provided to a recipient located overseas. In this case, the supply would not be considered "connected with Australia" and would likely fall under the category of GST-free export of services.
So in essence would the tax office see me as exporting my service seeing as I had to wear their uniform and be their representative not a contractor. Just confused. Please help as I am trying to collect on the debt and it is just getting ridiculous after over 12 months. This is the latest delay!