Issue 44/2011

PMA Australia

There were major changes during the year :- PMA delivered for the Industry a record attendance at the 2011 Imaging & Entertainment Show which PICA are planning to build on with a new association and new management team to run the 2012 event.

PMA will be doing everything possible to deliver a first class conference to support next years show as it is in everyones interest to make The Digital Show a roaring success.

PMA Jackson, USA

Whilst this transition was occuring in Australia, PMA USA was changing venues for their annual show by aligning their organisation more with the consumer electronic market at CES - a move that has gained universal support from PMA members.

At the same time the senior management group in Jackson was changed, resulting in a more responsive team for the future under the leadership of industry savy, Jim Esp.

Everyone associated with the retail market is feeling the effects of consumers not spending, the relentless growth of sales on the internet, price deflation in the majority of CE goods causing the profit to be markedly reduced for suppliers and retailers alike.

It may not be the "perfect storm", but for many of our members it is representing a set of challenges not met before.

Best Wishes

Peter Rose 

Your PMA Australia Executive

 National Chairperson

Richard Robertson
 

DIMA International President

Phil Gresham

philip@fotofast.com.au

Eastern Region TVP

and NSW Chairperson

John Ralph

jrcamerahouse@bigpond.com

WA, SA, NT, QLD TVP

and QLD Chairperson

Andrew Mason 

print@photocontinental.com.au

 TAS Chairperson

Tim Jones

 tim@perfectprints.com.au

VIC Chairperson

Jeff Crowley

jeff.crowley@fujifilm.com.au

SA Chairperson

Paul Atkins

paul@atkins.com.au

WA Chairperson

Murray Gibbs

murray@ggch.com.au

Director of Australian Activities

Peter Rose

prose@pmai.org

Australian Directors for PMA

John Paxton

jpaxton@paxtons.com.au 

Len Sandler

len.sandler@starshots.com.au

PPFA Chairperson

Ormond Williams

osgood@bigpond.net.au

APCI Chairperson

Paul Atkins

paul@atkins.com.au

PSPA Chairperson

Paul Dawson

pd@hydrophotographics.com.au

PIEA Chairperson

Gale Spring

g.spring@rmit.edu.au

PMA Australia Office

02 9454 2444

pmaaustralia@pmai.org

Editor

Glynn Lavender

pmaaustralia@pmai.org

"Old QLD. Hanimexicans", left to right: Geoff Thompson, Jim Graham, Teena Mason, Andrew Mason & Richard Grahle.

By Shivaun Hales

Customs will now be examining air express cargo deliveries more closely, with the online shopping boom resulting in a 300% surge in imported goods valued at less than $1000.

The Audit Office believes the current self-assessment arrangements of goods under $1000 presents "elevated risks of potentially prohibited or restricted goods and revenue evasion".

More than 1.2 million consignments with a declared value of less than $10 were processed during 2010, according to the Audit Office's report on risk management in the processing of sea and air cargo imports.

"From a sample of around 1.3 million self assessed transactions analysed by the audit office, there were 2194 consignments described as 'new mobile phones' -- all with a declared value of $0," the report reads.

The report found the declaration of some technology appeared inconsistent with the weight and description of the item, with vague labels such as "electronic stuff".

Earlier this year Customs introduced an operation to prevent the GST and customs duty thresholds from being abused.

After examining 31,800 self-assessed declarations, the body requested proof of the purchase price in 11,699 instances.

More than $625,000 in additional duty or GST from 1604 packages was paid as a result, representing 13.7% of the challenged declarations.

The Audit Office concluded Customs uses "intelligence-led and risk-based" approaches to effectively process sea and air cargo imports, while noting "it is difficult to know the proportion of prohibited and restricted goods" that cross the border undetected.

 The November issue of 6Sight magazine, the voice of the Future of Imaging Conference, is now available.

In this 32-page issue:

The Shape of Cameras Today
An overview of the leading current models from the top manufacturers.

All Photography is Mobile
If camera phones are "mobile imaging" - where does that leave standalone cameras?

6Sight Camera Panel
Jeff Witkop, Kodak; Darin Pepple, Panasonic; Kartik Venkataraman, Pelican Imaging; Vincent Laforet, Laforet Visuals; and Paul Worthington, 6Sight, debate the where the camera industry is leading in imaging - and where it's falling behind.

Imaging News
A round up of the many, many recent announcements of new and innovative cameras.

Inside Out
Bob McKay's insider's view.

Here's an interesting tale from England about categorising photo products for taxation purposes. 

The Daily Mail in the United Kingdom reports a three-year battle with over whether a photo book is really a "book" may cost more than £1million in tax revenue after a bizarre three-year legal case over whether a printed photo-book of personal snaps is really a book.

A tax court has ruled HM Revenue & Customs should not have charged photo-processing firm Truprint£545,800 in value-added tax (VAT) for selling the printed and bound books of favorite pictures which can be ordered online. The albums have now been classified as books - meaning they should have been zero-rated.

"Tax bosses will have to repay the £545,800 to Truprint to cover the tax years 2006 to 2009. They must also repay their own and the company's legal costs, totalling an estimated £500,000, plus additional VAT payments of tens of thousands of pounds made by Truprint to cover the period 2009 to 2011," the report said.

Before Truprint took on the tax chiefs, the revenue officehad insisted photo-books were not the same as other books.

Once the electronic file is created, pages are printed and bound in the same way as book manufacturing. In a 19-page judgment last week, London VAT Tribunal Judge Roger Berner ruled the vast majority of Truprint's photo-book products could be classed as books because there is content printed inside.

Truprint said its business and 350 jobs at its plant at Newton Abbot, Devon, had come under threat because of the burden of VAT payments. It claimed to have lost business to European rivals paying lower VAT rates.

Jan 8-13:                         PMA @ CES