GST on Overseas Sales for Australian Shopify Stores

Quick answer: If your business is registered for GST, goods you sell and export to overseas customers are generally GST-free. The ATO’s test is that you export the goods from Australia within 60 days of the earlier of payment or invoice (unless the ATO extends the period), and you keep proof that they left; a sale delivered to an address in Australia is generally still taxable, whoever the buyer is. In Shopify, set tax display for each market so Australian shoppers see GST-inclusive prices and overseas shoppers are not charged GST, then place a real test order from each country. This is general information, not tax advice, so confirm your setup with your accountant.

The first time a parcel leaves for the United States or the United Kingdom, a GST question lands on the owner’s desk. Do I charge it? Does it change the price the shopper sees? And what about the Shopify tax settings, which were probably set up once, in a hurry, for Australian orders only?

The headline is easy: exports are generally GST-free. The details are where money goes: how long you have to ship, what proof to keep, and what the Shopify settings do to the price an overseas shopper sees.

This guide goes back to the primary sources: the ATO’s own pages and ruling on exports, the ACCC’s price display guidance and Shopify’s Help Center. I read them on 31 October 2026 and name the source where each rule appears. I am not your accountant, and this is not legal or tax advice. It is written for stores based in Australia; the ATO has separate pages for non-resident businesses.

One boundary: tax is not a service we sell at Prism3 (we do Shopify SEO, GEO and CRO). I am writing about it because tax setup decides what shoppers see at checkout and what each order earns you. The tax decisions belong with your accountant.

What the ATO says: when overseas sales are GST-free

Start with the rule itself, because everything else in Shopify has to match it.

The ATO’s Exports and GST page says exports of goods and services from Australia are generally GST-free. If you are registered for GST, that means two things. You do not include GST in the price of the GST-free export, and you can still claim credits for the GST included in the price of purchases you used to make the exported goods. The second point is easy to forget, and it is real money.

The condition matters: this applies if you are registered for GST. The ATO’s “When to charge GST (and when not to)” page frames the system the same way: if you are registered, or required to be, the goods and services you sell in Australia are taxable sales unless they are GST-free or input-taxed.

The 60-day rule

For goods, the ATO says exported goods are GST-free if the supplier exports them from Australia within 60 days of whichever of these comes first:

• the supplier receives any payment for the goods, or
• the supplier issues an invoice for the goods.

If the goods are paid for by instalments, the payment or invoice that counts is the final instalment. Suppliers can ask the ATO to extend the 60-day period, and the ATO’s page says to do that through Online services for business.

The ATO’s ruling on exports of goods (GSTR 2002/6) adds two details. The period starts on the day after the earlier of payment or invoice, so count carefully and let your accountant confirm the exact last day. And where you contract for carriage out of Australia, the ATO accepts the timing is met if you hand the goods to an international transport provider within the 60 days.

For an online store, the clock normally starts with the order’s payment. That makes this a dispatch-speed rule, which is trivial until you sell something that does not ship straight away (see the mistakes section).

What counts as an export, and what does not

The ATO’s page on taxable sales says a sale of goods is connected with Australia if the goods are delivered or made available in Australia to the purchaser, or removed from Australia, among other cases. It then adds that exports are generally GST-free even though the sale is connected with Australia. In plain terms, the goods have to actually leave the country. Where the buyer lives does not decide it.

Here is how I would sort the situations a Shopify store meets, using what the ATO pages say. It is a way to ask better questions, not a ruling on your sales.

The last row comes from the ATO’s ruling on exports of goods (GSTR 2002/6). Where a supplier only delivers within Australia, to a person who is not a ship or aircraft operator, the supplier is not considered the exporter, and the sale is GST-free only if further conditions are met. The same ruling says that using a courier or freight forwarder as your agent to hand goods to the international carrier does not stop you being the exporter, which covers the normal parcel setup. The “buyer’s own forwarder” case is the one to raise with a professional first.

Keep the proof

The same ruling covers record-keeping. A supplier of GST-free exports must keep records showing the goods were exported and that this happened within the time limit. If you cannot produce documentary evidence that would let an independent party reasonably conclude the goods were exported, the supply is not treated as GST-free. The ruling names international transport documents such as an air waybill or consignment note as the usual evidence, and includes a worked example close to a small online store: a business posting individual orders overseas by post or express courier.

For a Shopify store this is a habit, not a project. For each international order, keep:

• the date the order was paid and the date it left your hands,
• the carrier, tracking number and the carrier’s consignment or international tracking record,
• the shipping address.

Most of that already sits in Shopify and your shipping app. Make sure it can be pulled for a single order, months later.

Do exports count toward the A$75,000 threshold?

Yes. A common assumption is that mostly overseas sales keep you under the line. They do not.

The ATO says you must register for GST when your GST turnover reaches A$75,000 or more. You hit the threshold if either your current turnover (the current month plus the previous 11) is A$75,000 or more, or your projected turnover (the current month plus the next 11) is likely to be. You need to register within 21 days of your GST turnover exceeding the threshold. Your GST turnover is your total business income, not profit, minus things like the GST in your sales and sales not connected with Australia.

Exports are connected with Australia, so they stay in. The ATO’s Exports and GST page says to include export sales connected with Australia when you calculate GST turnover, even though they are GST-free, and gives an example. A business sells mobile phone parts online, with A$50,000 to Australian customers and A$50,000 to overseas customers over 12 months. Both count, so turnover is A$100,000 and registration is required.

If you are not registered when you should be, the ATO says you may have to pay GST on sales made since the date you were required to register, even if you did not include GST in the price, plus penalties and interest.

A store turning over A$150,000 or more a year is past the threshold on turnover alone, so registration is not optional and the rules in this guide apply. If you are close to the line, or not sure when you crossed it, ask your accountant to check your registration date.

Setting up Shopify: GST-inclusive for Australia, none for overseas

The target: an Australian shopper sees one price with GST included, an overseas shopper is not charged GST, and your margin per order is what you planned. Here is the order I would set it up in. Shopify’s menus change, so treat the names as a guide and check them against your admin; I read the Help Center pages on 31 October 2026.

Step 1: Tell Shopify where you are registered

For stores based in Australia, Shopify’s Help Center describes the Basic Tax service. You go to Settings, then Taxes and duties, click your country, choose Collect sales tax, and enter your tax number. Shopify’s note on that page is that it is your responsibility to check with the tax authority or a professional that you charge the correct rates and file correctly, and its main Taxes page says Shopify does not remit or file your taxes unless you use Shopify Tax with automated filing. Ask your accountant which number goes in the field.

Step 2: Choose how prices are displayed

By default, Shopify shows product prices without tax and adds tax at checkout. For Australian customers that is the wrong way round. The ACCC’s price display guidance says a business must display the total price as a single figure, and that figure must be the minimum total cost, including any taxes, duties and unavoidable extra fees (its example is GST on an advertised holiday). The ACCC does not give legal advice on price displays, and neither do I.

Shopify gives you two ways to include tax in displayed prices:

1. Store-wide: Settings, then Taxes and duties, then the option to include sales tax in product price and shipping rate. Shopify’s page says that to use each customer’s local tax rate instead of your home tax rate, you set up tax-inclusive pricing for each market.
2. By market: In Markets, open a market and edit Duties and taxes. Shopify’s page offers Dynamic tax display (prices include tax where that is expected, such as Australia, and exclude it where it is not, such as the United States), Show as included, or Show as line item.

For an Australian store that sells abroad, the by-market route is usually the right one, and Dynamic tax display is built for this job. Shopify’s tax-inclusive pricing page lists Australia, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, the European Union, Singapore and several others as places where tax-inclusive prices apply; for all other countries, taxes are still calculated and displayed at checkout. Its dynamic tax-inclusive pricing page lists a longer set of countries, so the two pages do not match, and a test order for each market you care about is the safe check. The United States and Canada, where customers expect tax added later, are on the exclusive side.

Leave “Charge tax on this product” selected on your products. Shopify’s page says that is what lets tax be included in the displayed price, and it adds that setting prices to include tax does not affect your tax reporting.

Step 3: Understand what “dynamic” does to the price

This step surprises people, so here is Shopify’s own logic. With a 10% home tax rate and a product listed at 100, Shopify finds the tax inside the price with tax = (rate x price) / (1 + rate), which is 9.09, leaving a product portion of 90.91. In a region where you are not required to charge tax, the shopper sees 90.91. Where you do charge tax at another rate, Shopify applies that rate to the 90.91.

Now put Australian numbers on it. These are illustrative, not a benchmark. A product is listed at A$110 including GST. The GST inside it is A$110 / 11 = A$10, so the product portion is A$100. With dynamic display on and no fixed overseas price, a US shopper sees A$100 (before any currency conversion), with no Australian GST in it.

The tax treatment is right. The price may not be what you meant to charge, which brings us to an easy decision to skip.

Step 4: Decide the overseas price on purpose

Overseas orders usually cost more to fulfil: international postage, slower carriers, more returns, currency and payment fees, and possibly duties. If dynamic display silently takes 1/11th off the shelf price, your overseas margin falls without you ever choosing it.

Illustrative worked example (my numbers, not a benchmark):

Same product, same revenue per unit, and the overseas order earns A$15 less, about a third (15 / 47 is roughly 32%). That is a fine result if you chose it as the cost of entering a market. It is a leak if you did not.

Shopify’s pages say that when you set fixed product prices using international pricing, you add them at exactly the amount you want charged, and no regional adjustment is made to fixed prices. So you can set a deliberate overseas price (for example A$115 in a US market) and know it will not be trimmed. The cost of shipping and returns belongs in that decision. Our guide to contribution margin per order walks through the arithmetic, and Shopify Markets for Australian stores selling overseas covers pricing and currency by market.

Step 5: Set shipping separately

Shopify’s page on dynamic tax-inclusive pricing says it adjusts product prices only. It does not change your shipping rates, so an overseas customer still pays the shipping rate exactly as you set it. To make shipping reflect the destination, create country-specific rates with shipping profiles.

So the rate you typed in for Australia (perhaps with GST built in) travels overseas unless you create a separate overseas rate. How freight on an export is treated is a question for your accountant: the ATO’s BAS guide reports freight and insurance for an export separately from the goods value. Our post on shipping and returns messaging for Australian stores covers how to show those costs so shoppers are not surprised.

Test the checkout from every country you sell to

Settings can be right on paper and wrong at checkout, and Shopify’s own pages list several conditions that change what a shopper sees. Place real test orders for Australia and each overseas country you sell to:

1. Use a shipping address in that country. Australia should show GST included. An overseas address should show no Australian GST.
2. Compare product page, cart and checkout prices. Shopify says that with tax included or excluded by customer location, checkout prices are right but product pages and the cart may not be, unless you sell in local currencies with Shopify Payments, or the shopper has purchased before using an address in an eligible region, with cookies on and not in a private window. The ACCC says that when the checkout price differs from the displayed price, the business must sell at the lower one or stop selling until it is fixed.
3. Check shipping and duties. Look at the shipping rate, any free-shipping threshold and, if you charge duties, the duty line.
4. Test the fast buttons. Shopify’s “Include taxes in product prices” page says accelerated checkout buttons are not supported with tax included or excluded by country. Its “Dynamic tax-inclusive pricing” page does not repeat that. The two pages differ, so test Apple Pay, Google Pay and Shop Pay yourself, on a phone.
5. Test with your apps on. Shopify says tax inclusion by customer country is not supported on stores using third-party post-purchase upsell apps.
6. Test a discount code on an overseas and an Australian order.
7. Save dated screenshots of each checkout, as your record if something changes.

A total that jumps at the last step is conversion damage as well as a tax problem. Our checkout leakage audit shows where to look.

Mistakes that quietly cost margin

None of these are dramatic. Each one is a small, repeating leak. Two more are covered above: letting dynamic pricing set your overseas price by accident, and letting the Australian shipping rate travel overseas.

1. Pre-orders and backorders that cross 60 days. Illustrative example: an order is paid on 2 November and handed to the international carrier on 15 January. That is 74 days later, past 60 however you count the first day. On the ATO’s test, that parcel is not a GST-free export unless the ATO has extended the period. The ATO lets suppliers ask for an extension, which is a conversation for your accountant. As a rule of my own (not the ATO’s), I would flag any international order still unshipped at around 45 days.

2. Overseas orders delivered to an Australian address. A gift ordered from London and delivered to Melbourne is connected with Australia. None of the Shopify pages I read says which address drives the tax on an order, so test it.

3. Tax overrides and dynamic pricing. Shopify’s dynamic tax-inclusive pricing page says tax overrides are not recognised when it is on, that only the standard rates for the origin and destination countries are used, and that an override on international sales can lead to customers being charged more than expected and affect margins. If you have an override, check it against a test order.

4. Not claiming GST credits on what you export. The ATO says a registered business can still claim credits for the GST in purchases used to make exported goods. Ask your bookkeeper whether they are, and how exports are reported on your BAS (the ATO’s BAS guide has separate labels for export sales and for freight and insurance on them).

Duties and import taxes: the other half of the overseas price

GST is the Australian side. The shopper’s country may charge its own import taxes and duties when the parcel arrives. I have not verified any destination country’s rules for this post, so I cover none. What Shopify gives you is a choice about who pays and when.

In Markets, Shopify’s duties and taxes page says you can set duties to show as a line item at checkout (the shopper pays upfront), or to be included in the price (you absorb the cost). The page notes the trade-off: showing duties as a line item keeps product-page prices low but might hurt your checkout rate (the same goes for tax as a line item where shoppers expect tax-inclusive prices). It also says duty calculations are estimates based on a product’s Harmonized System (HS) code, country of origin and the customer’s location, that customs may charge differently, and that some countries have de minimis thresholds below which no duties are charged.

Two practical jobs follow:

• Fill in HS codes and country of origin on products you ship abroad. Shopify says that if a product has no HS code, the duty calculation falls back to the product description and category, which may be less accurate.
• Measure what duties cost you. If you absorb duties, Shopify’s page shows how to check: in Analytics, then Reports, open the Total sales over time report, add the Market name column, and divide the Duties column by Net sales. Illustrative example: A$600 of duties on A$12,000 of net sales is 5%. If that comes out of your margin, the overseas price or the duty setting needs to change.

Whether to absorb or pass on duties is a pricing decision, made market by market. Our post on surprise checkout costs explains why late extras hurt completion.

Reading your numbers afterwards

A monthly routine keeps the settings honest:

1. Filter orders by shipping country and total the overseas orders.
2. Check the tax column. Export orders should show no Australian GST; on Australian orders it should be about one-eleventh of the total where everything on the order is taxable.
3. Check dispatch dates. Count the days from payment to handover to the international carrier for each overseas order, and chase anything near 60.
4. Look at margin per order by market: revenue net of GST, minus product, postage, duties you absorb and fees. If overseas is far below Australia, return to the pricing decision. Our guide to a unit economics spreadsheet is a starting point.

Keep your reporting on revenue net of GST. A sale at A$110 including GST is A$100 of revenue to you; the A$10 is collected for the ATO (business.gov.au describes GST as one-eleventh of the sale price). If your ad and email numbers use GST-inclusive revenue against costs that exclude GST, every ratio on your Australian orders is flattered by up to about 10%.

What to ask your accountant

The answers are theirs to give, not mine:

• Am I registered for GST, and from what date? Does my turnover, including exports, put me past the threshold?
• Do my international orders meet the export conditions as I ship them, including orders that might take more than 60 days?
• What export proof should I keep, and for how long?
• How are freight and insurance on exports treated and reported, and am I claiming credits on what I export?
• Do I need to look at tax registrations in the countries I sell to? (Shopify’s Help Center says that if you need to charge sales tax in a region, you need to register with that region’s tax agency.)

Key takeaways

• If you are registered for GST, the ATO says exported goods are generally GST-free. You do not include GST in the price, and you can still claim credits on the purchases behind the sale.
• The test for goods is export within 60 days of the earlier of payment or invoice, extendable by the ATO on request. Pre-orders and backorders are where stores trip.
• Delivery to an address in Australia is generally taxable, whoever the buyer is.
• Export sales still count toward the A$75,000 registration threshold.
• Dynamic tax display gives Australian shoppers GST-inclusive prices, but takes 1/11th off the price overseas unless you set fixed market prices. Set overseas shipping rates separately.
• Test a real checkout from every country, on a phone, with your apps on.
• Measure duties and margin per order by market, using revenue net of GST.

FAQs

Do I charge GST on international sales from my Shopify store?

If you are registered for GST, the ATO says exports are generally GST-free, so you do not include GST in the price. For goods, that means exporting them from Australia within 60 days of the earlier of payment or invoice (extendable by the ATO) and keeping proof. A sale delivered to an Australian address is still taxable. Confirm your position with your accountant.

How long do I have to ship an overseas order for it to be GST-free?

The ATO says 60 days from whichever comes first: you receive any payment, or you issue an invoice. For instalments, it is the final instalment. You can ask the ATO to extend the period, and its ruling accepts the timing is met if you hand the goods to an international transport provider within the 60 days. A pre-order paid on 2 November has until about the start of January 2027, so ask your accountant to confirm the exact last day.

Do overseas sales count toward the GST registration threshold?

Yes. The ATO says to include export sales connected with Australia in your GST turnover, even though they are GST-free. The threshold is A$75,000 (A$150,000 for non-profit organisations), measured over the current month plus the previous 11 or projected over the current month plus the next 11. You need to register within 21 days of your GST turnover exceeding the threshold.

Can Australian shoppers see GST-inclusive prices while overseas shoppers are not charged GST?

Yes. In Markets, set Duties and taxes for each market. Dynamic tax display includes tax where that is expected, such as Australia, and excludes it where it is not. That takes the tax portion off the overseas price, so decide whether you want a fixed overseas price.

What if an overseas customer has the order delivered to an address in Australia?

The ATO says goods delivered or made available in Australia are connected with Australia, and that exports are GST-free even though the sale is connected with Australia. So where the goods go matters, not where the buyer lives. A gift sent from an overseas buyer to an Australian address is generally not an export by you.

Who pays import duties and taxes on an overseas order?

That depends on the destination country and your store setup. Shopify’s Markets settings let you collect duties and import taxes at checkout as a line item, or include them in your price and absorb the cost. Shopify says duty calculations are estimates and customs may charge differently. Check the rules for each country you sell to.

Keep reading

• Shopify Markets for Australian stores selling overseas
• Contribution margin per order on Shopify: a worked example

Want a second look at what your overseas shoppers see at checkout?

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