Netflix won’t charge GST in Australia

Netflix today confirmed that it will not be charging GST when it launches in Australia next week. Netflix Director of Corporate Communications and Technology Cliff Edwards told CyberShack that as a cloud-based service provider lacking a physical footprint in Australia, the online streaming company is not required to.

"We don't have an office per say in Australia or New Zealand," Edwards said, "so we don't charge GST and pay that back to the government. We try and give you the lowest price possible. What normally happens in most countries with GST taxing or local taxing is that you have to have an office and actual employees for a government to collect taxes."

Internationally, Netflix uses hardware called "Open Connect Appliances", free boxes that mirror the service's entire catalogue of video content. This hardware is designed to help internet service providers (ISPs) deal with the massive amount of traffic that Netflix generates. Gizmodo confirmed that Netflix will be deploying Open Connect boxes in Australia.

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