GST on buying CPAP online

[gumleafau]

Are there any members in Australia bought a CPAP machine from merchant located oversea recently?
Do you have to pay GST when the item arrived into Australia?

[DeepBreathing]

Medical equipment is GST-exempt. There may be a customs charge of about $80. Whether or not you have to pay this seems to depend on which courier handles the delivery. (ie some members have been charged but others have not. There doesn't seem to be much consistency).

[mesenteria]

This is a problem in Canada as well.  I have had some model locomotives delivered with only a request for GST, but other times have been told there's customs as well.  It's arbitrary.

Here in Canada, deliveries from the USA will also bite you in the form of 'customs brokerage fees' imposed by the major couriers.  The mail parcel services don't seem to have this impediment, and I have never had to pay customs brokerage fees when Canada Post takes and delivers the item from the hands of the US Postal Service.