my name is Filip and I am from Serbia, in few days I will have my app done and it is going to be free app with in-app purchase option. In Serbia it is not yet allowed to publish paid apps, but I am student in Czech Republic and I was wondering is it possible to open developer account as person from Czech Republic and use my Czech bank account for google merchant account, is it going to work and is it legal?
On Tuesday, October 2, 2012 5:41:01 PM UTC+8, Filip Vucetic wrote:
> Hi guys,
> my name is Filip and I am from Serbia, in few days I will have my app done > and it is going to be free app with in-app purchase option. In Serbia it is > not yet allowed to publish paid apps, but I am student in Czech Republic > and I was wondering is it possible to open developer account as person from > Czech Republic and use my Czech bank account for google merchant account, > is it going to work and is it legal?
The reason I am saying it should work is because I am American, but could open an account no problems in Singapore with my Singapore bank account. I think the only requirement is, and this may vary from country to country, is that you have a bank account in that country. They are not asking for a proof of citizenship or anything.
On Thursday, October 4, 2012 2:47:16 PM UTC+8, Zsolt Vasvari wrote:
> It should work. Is it legal? Ask your lawyer -- no body here will give > you legal advice.
> On Tuesday, October 2, 2012 5:41:01 PM UTC+8, Filip Vucetic wrote:
>> Hi guys,
>> my name is Filip and I am from Serbia, in few days I will have my app >> done and it is going to be free app with in-app purchase option. In Serbia >> it is not yet allowed to publish paid apps, but I am student in Czech >> Republic and I was wondering is it possible to open developer account as >> person from Czech Republic and use my Czech bank account for google >> merchant account, is it going to work and is it legal?
It will work. I'm using a Austrian bank account and my company is based in Hungary. i had to fax my official papers for the company and they did not say a word... Just keep in mind that once you have registered in a country you WILL NOT be able to change it. So prepare to keep that bank account as long as you sell on the market... Rudolf
On Tuesday, October 2, 2012 11:41:01 AM UTC+2, Filip Vucetic wrote:
> Hi guys,
> my name is Filip and I am from Serbia, in few days I will have my app done > and it is going to be free app with in-app purchase option. In Serbia it is > not yet allowed to publish paid apps, but I am student in Czech Republic > and I was wondering is it possible to open developer account as person from > Czech Republic and use my Czech bank account for google merchant account, > is it going to work and is it legal?
On Thu, Oct 4, 2012 at 4:26 PM, Rudolf Hornig <rudolf.hor...@gmail.com> wrote:
> It will work. I'm using a Austrian bank account and my company is based in
> Hungary.
Just out of curiosity, how do you handle taxes under that arrangement?
Specifically, do you pay any Austrian taxes, or deal with Austrian
tax authorities at all?
No, you cannot change the country of an account, but you can set up a new account with a new country and transfer all your apps there. You will need to submit a request to Google, but in my case, they transferred my apps in literally 10 minutes after submitting the request. I could not believe my eyes. So it's not like once you pick a country, you are stuck forever.
On Thursday, October 4, 2012 10:26:06 PM UTC+8, Rudolf Hornig wrote:
> It will work. I'm using a Austrian bank account and my company is based in > Hungary. i had to fax my official papers for the company and they did not > say a word... Just keep in mind that once you have registered in a country > you WILL NOT be able to change it. So prepare to keep that bank account as > long as you sell on the market... > Rudolf
> On Tuesday, October 2, 2012 11:41:01 AM UTC+2, Filip Vucetic wrote:
>> Hi guys,
>> my name is Filip and I am from Serbia, in few days I will have my app >> done and it is going to be free app with in-app purchase option. In Serbia >> it is not yet allowed to publish paid apps, but I am student in Czech >> Republic and I was wondering is it possible to open developer account as >> person from Czech Republic and use my Czech bank account for google >> merchant account, is it going to work and is it legal?
In all countries, with the notable exception of the US, you pay taxes where you earn them. If you are a US national/PR, the US government expect you pay US taxes no matter where you earned the money. The first $X is a foreign tax credit which means you don't pay double taxes on the first $X you earn. X is around $95,000 these days. Anyway, this is the general idea, and I am not a tax accountant, so don't take this as an advice. With any questions, you need to consult a professional tax accountant.
On Thursday, October 4, 2012 11:05:40 PM UTC+8, latimerius wrote:
> On Thu, Oct 4, 2012 at 4:26 PM, Rudolf Hornig <rudolf...@gmail.com<javascript:>> > wrote: > > It will work. I'm using a Austrian bank account and my company is based > in > > Hungary.
> Just out of curiosity, how do you handle taxes under that arrangement? > Specifically, do you pay any Austrian taxes, or deal with Austrian > tax authorities at all?
On Fri, Oct 5, 2012 at 2:37 AM, Zsolt Vasvari <zvasv...@gmail.com> wrote:
> In all countries, with the notable exception of the US, you pay taxes where
> you earn them. If you are a US national/PR, the US government expect you
> pay US taxes no matter where you earned the money. The first $X is a
> foreign tax credit which means you don't pay double taxes on the first $X
> you earn. X is around $95,000 these days. Anyway, this is the general
> idea, and I am not a tax accountant, so don't take this as an advice. With
> any questions, you need to consult a professional tax accountant.
No worries, fortunately I don't have to deal with this problem
anymore. I had to though when we first got involved with Android, and
our plan B was exactly what the OP describes. We figured it should
work from Google point of view (as Rudolf confirms) however we saw no
good way to figure out the taxes.
Where exactly you earn money can be a tricky question for someone
sitting in country A, using a sort of a proxy entity in country B to
sell stuff to someone else in country C, with the actual transaction
happening on Google servers in country D (most likely the U.S.).
I wouldn't be surprised at all if the logic (with respect to OP's
situation) was "Google deals with a Czech entity who has a Czech
street address and a Czech bank account, ergo someone's making profit
in CZ and has to pay Czech taxes". Or something like that. Now, if
he also lives there he has to pay Czech taxes anyway. The interesting
case would be if he lives in Serbia, as that would indicate Serbia
might be the place of his tax residence (depending on local laws)
which would mean he'd have to pay Serbian taxes as well.
So there seems to be a plausible argument for paying Czech taxes, and
a plausible argument for paying Serbian taxes.
Now I won't be paying any money to anyone to figure this out as I
don't *have* to know currently, I just thought I'd ask in case
somebody here has some experience or knowledge about this.
Great to know. I have not tried that before. I was aware that transfer is possible, but did not know it's so seamless :) Out of curiosity, this means that they have transferred your apps to a different "google account)?
On Friday, October 5, 2012 2:30:35 AM UTC+2, Zsolt Vasvari wrote:
> No, you cannot change the country of an account, but you can set up a new > account with a new country and transfer all your apps there. You will need > to submit a request to Google, but in my case, they transferred my apps in > literally 10 minutes after submitting the request. I could not believe my > eyes. So it's not like once you pick a country, you are stuck forever.
> On Thursday, October 4, 2012 10:26:06 PM UTC+8, Rudolf Hornig wrote:
>> It will work. I'm using a Austrian bank account and my company is based >> in Hungary. i had to fax my official papers for the company and they did >> not say a word... Just keep in mind that once you have registered in a >> country you WILL NOT be able to change it. So prepare to keep that bank >> account as long as you sell on the market... >> Rudolf
>> On Tuesday, October 2, 2012 11:41:01 AM UTC+2, Filip Vucetic wrote:
>>> Hi guys,
>>> my name is Filip and I am from Serbia, in few days I will have my app >>> done and it is going to be free app with in-app purchase option. In Serbia >>> it is not yet allowed to publish paid apps, but I am student in Czech >>> Republic and I was wondering is it possible to open developer account as >>> person from Czech Republic and use my Czech bank account for google >>> merchant account, is it going to work and is it legal?
I went through this thing already (how to do the taxing (hopefully) correctly). I live in Hungary (inside EU). Whenever I sell an app, that is a licensing contract between ME and the BUYER (google has nothing to do with it. They are just a technical intermediate).
You sell the app at the full price (what you set on the console). Now as I'm inside EU, *if* the consumer is also inside the EU that purchase is subject to VAT which should be paid by ME (at the local (hungarian) tax rate which is 27% in Hungary (shit!)).
i.e. I had to set full flat rate tax for all EU countries (this is pretty easy to set up in the merchant console).
Now, at the time of the purchase I owe 30% to google which could be seen as an expense (deductible from the profits).
generally if I set the net price to 1EUR and someone buys it in the EU, she will pay 1.27 EUR, Google will withhold the 30% of the NET price (i.e. 30cents) so you will receive 1.27-0.30 = 0.94 EUR
Now from this 0.97 EUR, you must pay the 0.27EUR to the local TAX authority, so at the the end you will have 0.7EUR net profit (subject to further taxes)
(there are some further complications as in theory you have to pay the VAT *locally* for the service (i.e. the software distribution) Google has provided to you. i.e. you should have additionally pay 0.30EUR*27%, but this amount is also TAX deductible at the same time, so you don't have to pay it actually... This is just an accounting issue). Please note that this is based on LOCAL Hungarian Tax laws, but laws in the EU must be reasonably compatible.
Generally, you should see Google as a big vending machine, dispensing your products. You are selling products to the customers and the vending machine provider charges you 30% of your NET income...
The location of your bank account does not matter at all...
(As in Hungary we do not have EUR but we have HUF as the official currency, all taxes must be calculated and paid in HUF. This further complicates the issue, as the TAX must be calculated immediatley on the day of purchase using the national banks currency exchange. Obviously this is different from the rates used by google, so you have an additional risk here. Welcome to the real world...)
On Friday, October 5, 2012 4:26:05 PM UTC+2, latimerius wrote:
> On Fri, Oct 5, 2012 at 2:37 AM, Zsolt Vasvari <zvas...@gmail.com<javascript:>> > wrote: > > In all countries, with the notable exception of the US, you pay taxes > where > > you earn them. If you are a US national/PR, the US government expect > you > > pay US taxes no matter where you earned the money. The first $X is a > > foreign tax credit which means you don't pay double taxes on the first > $X > > you earn. X is around $95,000 these days. Anyway, this is the general > > idea, and I am not a tax accountant, so don't take this as an advice. > With > > any questions, you need to consult a professional tax accountant.
> No worries, fortunately I don't have to deal with this problem > anymore. I had to though when we first got involved with Android, and > our plan B was exactly what the OP describes. We figured it should > work from Google point of view (as Rudolf confirms) however we saw no > good way to figure out the taxes.
> Where exactly you earn money can be a tricky question for someone > sitting in country A, using a sort of a proxy entity in country B to > sell stuff to someone else in country C, with the actual transaction > happening on Google servers in country D (most likely the U.S.).
> I wouldn't be surprised at all if the logic (with respect to OP's > situation) was "Google deals with a Czech entity who has a Czech > street address and a Czech bank account, ergo someone's making profit > in CZ and has to pay Czech taxes". Or something like that. Now, if > he also lives there he has to pay Czech taxes anyway. The interesting > case would be if he lives in Serbia, as that would indicate Serbia > might be the place of his tax residence (depending on local laws) > which would mean he'd have to pay Serbian taxes as well.
> So there seems to be a plausible argument for paying Czech taxes, and > a plausible argument for paying Serbian taxes.
> Now I won't be paying any money to anyone to figure this out as I > don't *have* to know currently, I just thought I'd ask in case > somebody here has some experience or knowledge about this.
On Mon, Oct 8, 2012 at 9:23 AM, Rudolf Hornig <rudolf.hor...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Hi,
> I went through this thing already (how to do the taxing (hopefully)
> correctly). I live in Hungary (inside EU). Whenever I sell an app, that is a
> licensing contract between ME and the BUYER (google has nothing to do with
> it. They are just a technical intermediate).
> You sell the app at the full price (what you set on the console). Now as I'm
> inside EU, *if* the consumer is also inside the EU that purchase is subject
> to VAT which should be paid by ME (at the local (hungarian) tax rate which
> is 27% in Hungary (shit!)).
> i.e. I had to set full flat rate tax for all EU countries (this is pretty
> easy to set up in the merchant console).
> Now, at the time of the purchase I owe 30% to google which could be seen as
> an expense (deductible from the profits).
> generally if I set the net price to 1EUR and someone buys it in the EU, she
> will pay 1.27 EUR, Google will withhold the 30% of the NET price (i.e.
> 30cents) so you will receive 1.27-0.30 = 0.94 EUR
> Now from this 0.97 EUR, you must pay the 0.27EUR to the local TAX authority,
> so at the the end you will have 0.7EUR net profit (subject to further taxes)
> (there are some further complications as in theory you have to pay the VAT
> *locally* for the service (i.e. the software distribution) Google has
> provided to you. i.e. you should have additionally pay 0.30EUR*27%, but this
> amount is also TAX deductible at the same time, so you don't have to pay it
> actually... This is just an accounting issue). Please note that this is
> based on LOCAL Hungarian Tax laws, but laws in the EU must be reasonably
> compatible.
> Generally, you should see Google as a big vending machine, dispensing your
> products. You are selling products to the customers and the vending machine
> provider charges you 30% of your NET income...
> The location of your bank account does not matter at all...
> (As in Hungary we do not have EUR but we have HUF as the official currency,
> all taxes must be calculated and paid in HUF. This further complicates the
> issue, as the TAX must be calculated immediatley on the day of purchase
> using the national banks currency exchange. Obviously this is different from
> the rates used by google, so you have an additional risk here. Welcome to
> the real world...)
> Rudolf
> On Friday, October 5, 2012 4:26:05 PM UTC+2, latimerius wrote:
>> On Fri, Oct 5, 2012 at 2:37 AM, Zsolt Vasvari <zvas...@gmail.com> wrote:
>> > In all countries, with the notable exception of the US, you pay taxes
>> > where
>> > you earn them. If you are a US national/PR, the US government expect
>> > you
>> > pay US taxes no matter where you earned the money. The first $X is a
>> > foreign tax credit which means you don't pay double taxes on the first
>> > $X
>> > you earn. X is around $95,000 these days. Anyway, this is the general
>> > idea, and I am not a tax accountant, so don't take this as an advice.
>> > With
>> > any questions, you need to consult a professional tax accountant.
>> No worries, fortunately I don't have to deal with this problem
>> anymore. I had to though when we first got involved with Android, and
>> our plan B was exactly what the OP describes. We figured it should
>> work from Google point of view (as Rudolf confirms) however we saw no
>> good way to figure out the taxes.
>> Where exactly you earn money can be a tricky question for someone
>> sitting in country A, using a sort of a proxy entity in country B to
>> sell stuff to someone else in country C, with the actual transaction
>> happening on Google servers in country D (most likely the U.S.).
>> I wouldn't be surprised at all if the logic (with respect to OP's
>> situation) was "Google deals with a Czech entity who has a Czech
>> street address and a Czech bank account, ergo someone's making profit
>> in CZ and has to pay Czech taxes". Or something like that. Now, if
>> he also lives there he has to pay Czech taxes anyway. The interesting
>> case would be if he lives in Serbia, as that would indicate Serbia
>> might be the place of his tax residence (depending on local laws)
>> which would mean he'd have to pay Serbian taxes as well.
>> So there seems to be a plausible argument for paying Czech taxes, and
>> a plausible argument for paying Serbian taxes.
>> Now I won't be paying any money to anyone to figure this out as I
>> don't *have* to know currently, I just thought I'd ask in case
>> somebody here has some experience or knowledge about this.
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