Last week, we talked about Apple’s tax policies and billing. What about Google’s tax policy? **
We are going to analyze it again today, because Google and Apple are similar in the process from payment to settlement, so this time we will only talk about the differences between Google and Apple.
Price with and without tax
Unlike Apple, which has the option of offering a price with or without tax, Google offers a price with tax. According to Google, some countries require that the price be tax inclusive:
“Some countries/territories require that the price seen on the buyer’s search page and product details page must be exactly the same as the amount paid at the time of payment. That is, all taxes and fees (including VAT) must be included in the price.”
Currently, Google supports offering prices including tax in the following countries:
“Australia, Austria, bahrain, belarus, Belgium, Brazil, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, the Czech republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, India, Ireland, Italy, Israel, Japan, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Mexico, Netherlands, new west Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Serbia, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom”
In the Google developer background, you can choose to offer the price with or without tax. Please pay attention to the details of “how to price on Google”, and WE will talk about it in detail later.
The price before tax means that the price the user sees is not the final price, and when the actual final payment is made, Google will add additional tax money, i.e. the player sees $10, but the payment could be $11, $12.50, etc.
Calculation of revenue before platform sharing
Pre-revenue-sharing refers to the distributable income of the platform and developer after taxes are removed. I’m not going to add any other variables, just taxes.
The calculation logic of tax price model
Revenue before platform sharing (local currency) = money paid by users (local currency) /(1+ local tax rate) Let’s say I’m a Korean developer releasing my game in Korea and offering a tax inclusive price, then my revenue before platform sharing = Won paid by users /(1+10%)
The calculation logic of the model without tax price
No special calculation is required for revenue before Google platform sharing in non-tax pricing/non-tax areas
The tax policy
Google currently taxes developers in Brazil due to currency issues (more on that below), and the cost is borne by consumers everywhere else.
What country has taxes?
1) VATMainly in the European Union and OECD countries, and a few other countries.
Other OECD countries (not currently listed as paying taxes on Google’s behalf) : Australia, Switzerland, Canada, Iceland, Japan, Mexico, Turkey, United States, Chile, Israel
Other EU member states (not currently listed on Google’s tax behalf) : Malta
2) A strange currency tax (a name he gave himself)
If your app is published in Brazil and you receive money in a currency other than Brazil, sorry, you have to pay 25% tax.
The original text reads as follows:
“Under Brazilian law, merchants who sell content in Brazil and receive payments in any currency other than Brazilian real (BRL) are required to deduct the required tax (25%) from transactions made by customers in Brazil from 4 November 2014. The tax will be paid to the Brazilian government.
If you are a Brazilian merchant, we recommend that you migrate your account to an account that receives BRL payments.”
So, if you want to make money in Brazil, you basically have to have an account there to collect local currency, otherwise the 25% tax is basically a kneel.
3) Consumption tax
Japan has a consumption tax, currently 8%, Google is only reminding you to pay voluntarily, has not directly revised the tax rate to impose. The government had set a target of raising the consumption tax to 10% in 2019.
4) Can the tax rate be changed?
Some countries can. Google already has a policy. No. European Union countries and the following:
Change the tax rate on the merchant side, not the developer side. Business background select sales tax, can be set.
Exchange rate and settlement
1, the exchange rate,
When your app is launched in multiple countries or even one country, it will encounter payment in different currencies, which introduces the exchange rate. Currently, both Google and Apple pay developers in a single currency, depending on where the developer’s account belongs.
In terms of exchange rates, Google and Apple are not quite the same based on current information.
Google uses real-time exchange rates at the time of payment
“Google will use the exchange rate at the time the buyer places the order to convert sales processed in the buyer’s currency to the currency in which your Google account is used. The rate is updated around the clock, so it is converted each time an order is paid. You’ll see the exchange rate in the order receipt for each app.”
2. Settlement period
The two platforms are also different. Google uses PST (time difference: 16 hours) /PDT (time difference: 15 hours) in natural month, because it provides detailed list, it is better to check with our BI background. Google settlement payment time is generally the second half of the month
If you have any questions, please feel free to ask them in the comments section or contact me (EHCO4869)