8 messages in com.googlegroups.google-checkout-api-ukRe: How to specify VAT with HTML API
FromSent OnAttachments
pmd18 Apr 2007 10:08 
m....@teecomp.co.uk23 Apr 2007 13:43 
pmd24 Apr 2007 06:04 
pmd24 Apr 2007 07:53 
Ropu25 Apr 2007 06:00 
webb...@gmail.com23 May 2007 16:04 
kilt...@gmail.com30 May 2007 03:52 
zzKevinm10 Jun 2007 06:32 
Subject:Re: How to specify VAT with HTML API
From:pmd (pmdh@gmail.com)
Date:04/24/2007 06:04:08 AM
List:com.googlegroups.google-checkout-api-uk

On Apr 23, 9:43 pm, "m.@teecomp.co.uk" <m.@teecomp.co.uk> wrote:

This might help,

Remove the tax_rate & tax_us_state lines and add the following (long winded) lines...

<input type="hidden" name="checkout-flow-support.merchant-checkout- flow-support.tax-tables.default-tax-table.tax-rules.default-tax- rule-1.rate" value="0.175"/> <input type="hidden" name="checkout-flow-support.merchant-checkout- flow-support.tax-tables.default-tax-table.tax-rules.default-tax- rule-1.tax-area.postal-area.country-code" value="GB"/>

Thanks that worked.

However if anyone from Google is reading could you please either document this in the HTML API or (please!) change the API to something much simpler like you already have to the US case.

The only problem is that google checkout adds the VAT to the amounts given, I suspect most merchants want to pass amounts that include VAT (as this is the norm in the UK).

I don't agree VAT inclusive is the norm and indeed for business-to- business we want to keep things VAT exclusive. Also if it ever supports sellling to a business with a valid Euro VAT No. in Europe (but excluding UK) the VAT should be zero so passing VAT exclusive price makes sense.

Another issue is that Google Checkout (UK) assumes that Shipping and Handling has no VAT applied to it. This is not normally the case for "Postage and Packing" which is a service and should therefore have VAT applied to it. If it was just "Postage" then that is free of VAT which I guess is what Google are assuming.

Cheers,

-- Phil