Google Play Partners now asking authors for US tax and IRELAND tax. What?!

[baldricko]

If you have your books on Google Play have you run into the red alert when you login yet? The one that requests you complete tax info for Ireland? It also tells me I don't have to since I have completed the US tax interview, but suggests if I don't there may be problems...

I am resident in Australia for tax purposes.

Anyone welcome to chime in here. I don't know what to make of it. I've been with Google Play Partners for more than five years now. Is this a new thing?

[baldricko]

If you sell on the Google Play platform, have you seen this red alert to complete tax info for Ireland?

I think it must be a problem at the google end, but maybe its been going on for some time and I missed the earlier threads and haven't been asked until now?

I have chatted to a Google Play rep, felt a lot like I was talking with a bot, but when I asked he was adament he was human, and then continued to sound like a bot. All I could get from him was redirections to the Google Play Partner tax doc information but really no help at all. Nothing about Ireland or the need to give a second lot of info to Google Play for Ireland. It seems odd to me. Maybe its just me though.

[Escapee]

I'm from Australia and didn't get a notice like that when I logged into my Google Play Partners account this morning. I've never heard of this before and I've been publishing books with them for 10 years. Weird.

[Seoulite]

Yep, I got an alert for the Ireland tax a couple of months ago. I remember trying to fill in the form, but for some reason it wouldn't accept my tax info. In the end, out of sheer frustration, I removed Ireland from my WORLDWIDE list. A pity, since I got some decent sales there.

[baldricko]

Yep, I got an alert for the Ireland tax a couple of months ago. I remember trying to fill in the form, but for some reason it wouldn't accept my tax info. In the end, out of sheer frustration, I removed Ireland from my WORLDWIDE list. A pity, since I got some decent sales there.

Oh damn, I don't want to end up removing Ireland.

I don't understand what is going on there.

[baldricko]

I'm from Australia and didn't get a notice like that when I logged into my Google Play Partners account this morning. I've never heard of this before and I've been publishing books with them for 10 years. Weird.

Well, that's really confusing isn't it? Meeting tax info requests should be something all Google authors are required to do, not a select few. I wonder what's up with that?

Anyone else here sell ebooks on Google Player?

[Escapee]

Ugh, I spoke too soon and now the message has appeared for me as well. Patty Jansen replied to your question on Kboards with the solution. Here's her advice: 'In Australia, you're meant to go to the ATO website and apply for a "proof of tax residency" certificate (google it, it takes you to the page), which, as far as I can see, is free and given online.'

I haven't done this yet, but I'll have to if I want to continue selling anything in Ireland I guess. More hoops to jump through.

[baldricko]

Yes, like Patty I'm going to wait it out. I've posted the responses of the rep to my own prickly response on that other thread.

[Bill Hiatt]

Since I'm currently almost all in on Select, I don't have to deal with Google. But it always used to be kind of a pain. Google had other book-related services of ill defined purpose, and navigating the structure to figure out where to post your books for sale was in the beginning a little bit like navigating a labyrinth in which there might or might not have been a minotaur. It got better later.

But then Google went through periodic phases where it slammed the door on new indie submissions for months at a time. Then, of course, there was the erection of all kinds of barriers so that you couldn't reach Google through an aggregator. (Amazon has been quirky about that last part, too, but the sales made it more worth it. For me at least, Google sales never came close to Amazon sales.)

Apparently, Google is still being quirky. Some things never change...