signing up for Google Cloud Platform as a private user

[Konstantin Hinrichs]

As I'm not a company and would like to use Cloud Platform Services for personal usage (Cloud Storage Coldline and Nearline, probably a lot more in the future) I'd like to register as a private person.

However https://console.cloud.google.com/freetrial seems the only way to register and there it is only possible to create a company account. When viewing the payment profiles, my profile from the Google Play Store is shown, but can't be selected as the profile for the account.

[Adam Rafuse]

The 'Customer info' section has an 'edit' icon which allows you to select between 'Individual' and 'Business'. If you cannot change this, then you may be signed into a Google account already associated with an organization. If this is the case, sign up using your actual personal account, such as an @gmail.com account.

[Konstantin Hinrichs]

I'm currently logged in with my gmail account, If it would be associated with a company I'm sure it'll be shown here https://myaccount.google.com/privacy?utm_source=OGB#personalinfo - no company name is shown there or on all elements where google shows up my name or account info. I can't change the customer info. It's fixed to business allowing me to enter a VAT ID, but of course, as a private person I don't have any.

[Alex Martelli]

On Fri, Feb 24, 2017 at 10:43 PM, 'Konstantin Hinrichs' via Google Cloud Developers <google-c...@googlegroups.com> wrote:

I'm currently logged in with my gmail account, If it would be associated with a company I'm sure it'll be shown here https://myaccount.google.com/privacy?utm_source=OGB#personalinfo - no company name is shown there or on all elements where google shows up my name or account info. I can't change the customer info. It's fixed to business allowing me to enter a VAT ID, but of course, as a private person I don't have any.

If you're a resident of the European Union, Google Cloud Platform is not currently set up to handle VAT without a VAT ID (as needed for sales to a private person), hence the need for a business registration. I know that our program managers are aware of this limitation, and of potentilal-customers' demand to remove it, but I do not know anything about the `road map` scheduling future work on this issue.

Alex

 

Am Freitag, 24. Februar 2017 23:28:42 UTC+1 schrieb Adam Rafuse:

The 'Customer info' section has an 'edit' icon which allows you to select between 'Individual' and 'Business'. If you cannot change this, then you may be signed into a Google account already associated with an organization. If this is the case, sign up using your actual personal account, such as an @gmail.com account.

On Friday, February 24, 2017 at 2:36:09 PM UTC-5, Konstantin Hinrichs wrote:

As I'm not a company and would like to use Cloud Platform Services for personal usage (Cloud Storage Coldline and Nearline, probably a lot more in the future) I'd like to register as a private person.

However https://console.cloud.google.com/freetrial seems the only way to register and there it is only possible to create a company account. When viewing the payment profiles, my profile from the Google Play Store is shown, but can't be selected as the profile for the account.

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[Konstantin Hinrichs]

Thanks for the detailed answer,

sadly Amazon Glacier now gets the job instead of Google Nearline and their AWS services the chance for new jobs due to this restriction in Google Cloud Services.

Am Samstag, 25. Februar 2017 17:49:49 UTC+1 schrieb Alex Martelli:

On Fri, Feb 24, 2017 at 10:43 PM, 'Konstantin Hinrichs' via Google Cloud Developers <google-c...@googlegroups.com> wrote:

I'm currently logged in with my gmail account, If it would be associated with a company I'm sure it'll be shown here https://myaccount.google.com/privacy?utm_source=OGB#personalinfo - no company name is shown there or on all elements where google shows up my name or account info. I can't change the customer info. It's fixed to business allowing me to enter a VAT ID, but of course, as a private person I don't have any.

If you're a resident of the European Union, Google Cloud Platform is not currently set up to handle VAT without a VAT ID (as needed for sales to a private person), hence the need for a business registration. I know that our program managers are aware of this limitation, and of potentilal-customers' demand to remove it, but I do not know anything about the `road map` scheduling future work on this issue.

Alex

 

Am Freitag, 24. Februar 2017 23:28:42 UTC+1 schrieb Adam Rafuse:

The 'Customer info' section has an 'edit' icon which allows you to select between 'Individual' and 'Business'. If you cannot change this, then you may be signed into a Google account already associated with an organization. If this is the case, sign up using your actual personal account, such as an @gmail.com account.

On Friday, February 24, 2017 at 2:36:09 PM UTC-5, Konstantin Hinrichs wrote:

As I'm not a company and would like to use Cloud Platform Services for personal usage (Cloud Storage Coldline and Nearline, probably a lot more in the future) I'd like to register as a private person.

However https://console.cloud.google.com/freetrial seems the only way to register and there it is only possible to create a company account. When viewing the payment profiles, my profile from the Google Play Store is shown, but can't be selected as the profile for the account.

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[Alex Martelli]

On Sat, Feb 25, 2017 at 8:54 AM, 'Konstantin Hinrichs' via Google Cloud Developers <google-c...@googlegroups.com> wrote:

Thanks for the detailed answer,

sadly Amazon Glacier now gets the job instead of Google Nearline and their AWS services the chance for new jobs due to this restriction in Google Cloud Services.

I do not doubt that you are right about that -- every restriction will cost GCP some potential business.

Alex

 

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[Geert Verhaag]

Alex,

thanks for the info, it would save a lot of people SO much time if Google just explained EU related restrictions ANYwhere, preferably once you select an EU country, but alas. As far as I can see a VAT number isn't mandatory. What harm could I potentially do myself by faking a business? 'Cause it's either that or Azure and I prefer Google.

And if you don't know the answer to that, do you happen to know who might?

Thanks in advance,

Geert.

On Saturday, February 25, 2017 at 5:49:49 PM UTC+1, Alex Martelli wrote:

On Fri, Feb 24, 2017 at 10:43 PM, 'Konstantin Hinrichs' via Google Cloud Developers <google-c...@googlegroups.com> wrote:

I'm currently logged in with my gmail account, If it would be associated with a company I'm sure it'll be shown here https://myaccount.google.com/privacy?utm_source=OGB#personalinfo - no company name is shown there or on all elements where google shows up my name or account info. I can't change the customer info. It's fixed to business allowing me to enter a VAT ID, but of course, as a private person I don't have any.

If you're a resident of the European Union, Google Cloud Platform is not currently set up to handle VAT without a VAT ID (as needed for sales to a private person), hence the need for a business registration. I know that our program managers are aware of this limitation, and of potentilal-customers' demand to remove it, but I do not know anything about the `road map` scheduling future work on this issue.

Alex

 

Am Freitag, 24. Februar 2017 23:28:42 UTC+1 schrieb Adam Rafuse:

The 'Customer info' section has an 'edit' icon which allows you to select between 'Individual' and 'Business'. If you cannot change this, then you may be signed into a Google account already associated with an organization. If this is the case, sign up using your actual personal account, such as an @gmail.com account.

On Friday, February 24, 2017 at 2:36:09 PM UTC-5, Konstantin Hinrichs wrote:

As I'm not a company and would like to use Cloud Platform Services for personal usage (Cloud Storage Coldline and Nearline, probably a lot more in the future) I'd like to register as a private person.

However https://console.cloud.google.com/freetrial seems the only way to register and there it is only possible to create a company account. When viewing the payment profiles, my profile from the Google Play Store is shown, but can't be selected as the profile for the account.

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[Alex Martelli]

On Sun, Mar 12, 2017 at 3:18 PM, Geert Verhaag <geert....@gmail.com> wrote:

Alex,

thanks for the info, it would save a lot of people SO much time if Google just explained EU related restrictions ANYwhere, preferably once you select an EU country, but alas. As far

Doesn't the help page at https://support.google.com/cloud/answer/6090602?hl=en come up explaining the issue? (Not a rhetorical question, I can't try it out since I'm currently not a European resident). If not, opening a bug on the issue tracker would help.

 

as I can see a VAT number isn't mandatory. What harm could I potentially do myself by faking a business? 'Cause it's either that or Azure and I prefer Google.

I'm not sure why the European Union refuses, in the matter of VAT, to allow citizens to be treated exactly like corporations, but rather prefers to put citizens at a disadvantage. Maybe contents and links from http://ec.europa.eu/taxation_customs/business/vat_en can help one understand this.

Back when I last resided in the European Union (of which I'm still a citizen, but currently not a resident), 13 years ago, as a consultant, I did have a "Partita IVA" (VAT account number in my native Italy) which among other advantages let me purchase (e.g.) office equipment at a warehouse-store where private citizens were forbidden to even set foot (great prices, excellent quality, and as long as those supplies were for my consulting work I could offset VAT charges and save even more). Being law-abiding, I refused to purchase stuff for friends and relatives, and got cursed because "oh come on, everybody else does it!". 

Of course, it IS quite possible for suppliers to sell to private citizens (as long as they charge the appropriate VAT and remit it to the appropriate national authority within the EU), but up to now Google Cloud Platform has apparently not set up the appropriate accounting structure to do this (I believe other business units belonging to the same company, Alphabet Inc, do have different accounting structures allowing sales to private citizens, but I am not sure). I am not sure about the trade-offs (e.g., why didn't that warehouse store also allow private citizens to shop there? no idea!), being chiefly a techie and not a business- or politics-side person.

 

And if you don't know the answer to that, do you happen to know who might?

About the EU's policies to disadvantage (VAT-wise) private citizens as opposed to corporations, I believe your MEP (Member of European Parliament) would be the best resource, but, sorry, I don't know exactly to find out who your MEP is, and knowing who mine (an Italian MEP from the residing-abroad electorate) is, would do you no good.

About Google's decision, up to now, to behave like that warehouse-store (only corporate customers allowed in the EU, not private citizens), rather than accept whatever admin overhead the EU mandates to sell to private citizens, I believe the best option would be to raise a feature request on the issue tracker (or "me too" an existing one, if any). Given GCP's recent announcements (at Next last week) about the "always-free" tier of use, one could reasonably expect that non-commercial use of GCP is supported and beloved by us; restricting that love and support to users who don't reside in the EU does seem really strange to me (not, I repeat, an expert on the business side of things!), for what little it's worth.

Thanks in advance,

Geert.

You're welcome!

Alex

 

On Saturday, February 25, 2017 at 5:49:49 PM UTC+1, Alex Martelli wrote:

On Fri, Feb 24, 2017 at 10:43 PM, 'Konstantin Hinrichs' via Google Cloud Developers <google-c...@googlegroups.com> wrote:

I'm currently logged in with my gmail account, If it would be associated with a company I'm sure it'll be shown here https://myaccount.google.com/privacy?utm_source=OGB#personalinfo - no company name is shown there or on all elements where google shows up my name or account info. I can't change the customer info. It's fixed to business allowing me to enter a VAT ID, but of course, as a private person I don't have any.

If you're a resident of the European Union, Google Cloud Platform is not currently set up to handle VAT without a VAT ID (as needed for sales to a private person), hence the need for a business registration. I know that our program managers are aware of this limitation, and of potentilal-customers' demand to remove it, but I do not know anything about the `road map` scheduling future work on this issue.

Alex

 

Am Freitag, 24. Februar 2017 23:28:42 UTC+1 schrieb Adam Rafuse:

The 'Customer info' section has an 'edit' icon which allows you to select between 'Individual' and 'Business'. If you cannot change this, then you may be signed into a Google account already associated with an organization. If this is the case, sign up using your actual personal account, such as an @gmail.com account.

On Friday, February 24, 2017 at 2:36:09 PM UTC-5, Konstantin Hinrichs wrote:

As I'm not a company and would like to use Cloud Platform Services for personal usage (Cloud Storage Coldline and Nearline, probably a lot more in the future) I'd like to register as a private person.

However https://console.cloud.google.com/freetrial seems the only way to register and there it is only possible to create a company account. When viewing the payment profiles, my profile from the Google Play Store is shown, but can't be selected as the profile for the account.

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