Feature Request: Display GST / Tax in receipts for Square Online

[Remi]

As I've raised numerous time (as have others) in the 'old forum' (why do we need a new one?), the GST/tax reporting in receipts is not working through the Online store. It is a LEGAL requirement in Australia to accurately display the amount of tax collected on items and total spend.

Please advise when this will be looked at. Your Customer Service have assured us in the past that all compliance requirements have been met in setting up the platform to work in Australia — the ATO and tax requirements beg to differ.

[BossBoardgames]

I believe we need a hard time frame on this. I now have to consider going back to a competitor site and POS solution where GST is reflected on customer receipts.

[Seamus]

Hey @BossBoardgames,

I wish I had something I was able to share here - as generally policy Square doesn't share product development time frames and I've not heard any updates about when this may be generally coming.

I'm aware the current lack of tax features for the Square Online platform in Australia is a source of frustration for online sellers and the workaround to send a receipt/tax invoice is cumbersome - the best I can do at the moment is continue advocating for the feature and pass on feedback to our team as it comes in via our Seller Community forum. I'll update this thread if I hear of any news this is changing.

[Debichan]

I really need this resolved, really. It never occurred to me that there could even be an issue here. It is 100% required for ALL customers by law, and I am currently having to ask my accountant to generate invoices in Xero for my online catering customers several times a day. The 'send receipt' function from Transactions section of Dashboard does not work, I provide a sample below of an in-store vs an online transaction. The in-store transaction has GST however the online transaction shows no GST. 

[Arie]

I hear your frustration @Debichan, and am sorry to hear the workaround of sending a receipt via Transactions isn't working for you. Please reach out to our support team so we can take a closer look. You can call support on 1800 760 137 (Mon-Fri, 9am-5pm AEDT), or contact us via online chat or email:

1. Sign in to your Square account

2. Head to our contact page https://squareup.com/help/au/en/contact

3. Click on any topic, then "I don't see my issue"

4. Click "Message us" or "Email us"

[Goodies]

I too have just signed up, and even the tax receipt square have sent me is illegal in Australia. Your invoices MUST show the tax amount. There should not have to be a timeframe, it should be there already if you wish to trade in this country

[bubbleparties]

@Seamus You don't have an online store in Australia selling anything with GST, do you?

If you did, you'd be pushing Square HARD and LOUD on this. Like we are.

Employees tend not to calculate the cost of doing a manual task repetitively, like your 'workaround". These costs erode the business as a whole.

Most of your users wouldn't have gone anywhere near Square Online to set up our stores, we would have chosen a working product instead.

Sending receipts manually? We might as well go back to writing them out by hand.

You lied to us.

In multiple places, on your website, on your help documents, in your videos, everywhere you could. 

Square should be suable for not disclosing this (and many other features) which simply don't exist. And users should be able to sue for our lost time trying to work out why the product doesn't do what's been sold it can do. 

[Goodies]

Actually they do, They are selling you a platform and giving tax receipts that do not comply. 

[Remi]

Can customers get accurate reflection of the GST they've paid on purchases by using this Square Pay 'feature'?

[Remi]

Why has this post been merged here @Seamus? It was made in relation to the "announcement" of the Square Pay "feature".

I appreciate you want to control customer perspectives, but legitimate questions about new releases shouldn't be ignored to suit your needs.

[Seamus]

Hey @Remi,

Square Pay is simply a way of saving payment details for faster checkout - the transaction is still processed via Square Online regardless of whether or not you're using Square Pay or manually typing in your payment details.

[CakesbyDrew]

Hi! 

I am trying to set up GST on my online store and cannot figure out how to add it. 

The online help articles all indicate that there should be a Tax section in the setting tab but there isn't any for me. Have I missed something completely obvious? I have looked everywhere and can't find a way to add GST/tax to the online store. 

To clarify, I am able to set up taxes in the Square Dashboard (and these are applied to any POS/invoice sales) but they aren't transferred over to the website's sales. So when a customer checks out on the website it says that 0% tax was charged. If I do the same sale using the POS app the correct GST/Tax rate is applied and shows correctly on the receipt. 

I don't know if this makes any difference but when I set up the online store originally I didn't anticipate needing GST but circumstances have changed and I am now needing to apply it.

[Seamus]

Hey @CakesbyDrew,

At the moment to send a tax invoice / receipt with GST highlighted, you'd need to do this manually via the Square Dashboard upon request. Square Online in Australia doesn't currently have the ability to send tax invoices, only order confirmations. The current references you're seeing to taxes for Square Online are unfortunately on US support articles.

Manually sending a GST compliant receipt from dashboard obviously isn't a great solution, and as you can see we've received a lot of feedback about this feature in this thread.

I am aware that the Square Online team are in the process of overhauling how this system works so that it can account for sending official tax invoices for countries other than the US (eg Australia, UK, Japan). I don't have an ETA at the moment, but I'll be updating and tagging everyone in this thread as soon as I hear of it launching.

Sorry I couldn't be of more help in the meantime!

[Remi]

Great to hear it's actually being worked on. 4 months and counting (in this thread alone)!

[bubbleparties]

I think it's time to post a link to this thread URL on Twitter and tag Jack Dorsey et al.

The Square share price is highly overrated.

[MLN]

@bubbleparties @Remi @Seamus  Has anyone had any updates to this yet??? I have only just created and published a page site on Square Online and am experiencing the same in regards to GST not showing on my end price at the Cart Checkout. I would hate to bring this matter up again like the issue we experienced not having our ABN reflected. Please advise urgently. As it stands I also read that it is possible but in fact it would seem it is not. After what I have just experienced this last week the manual invoicing is most certainly labourious. Especially under Emergency Pandemic Lockdowns. Had the facility been there online for customers to order and pay themselves through SQUARE Online with the correct Sales Tax added on it would have pushed sales up and I could've concentrated more on the job at hand. Instead as it stands using the SQUARE Online would mean I have to cough up 10% Deficit on every item I sell. Is SQUARE going to re-imburse? Serious questions being posed here by others before me and now experiencing myself again. Please advise urgently. RegardsAUD$8.00 + 10% GST =AUD$8.80 ! NOT AUD$8.00!

[Seamus]

Hi @MLN,

Thanks for getting in touch!

Because GST is an inclusive tax (as opposed to one that is added to the total amount of a sale), the GST amount is included within the $8. You're definitely not paying an extra 10% per sale.

You can view a breakdown of the GST amount for the transaction and send your customers receipt/tax invoice that highlights GST amounts via the transactions tab of your Square dashboard. You can also track what portion of your sales need to be set aside for GST via our tax reporting.

For $8 it'd look something like this:

If you'd like you can verify this via the government's GST calculator.

We send all GST amounts recorded against your transactions to your linked bank account, from there it's up to you to set aside GST amounts.

Hope this helps, please let me know if you have any follow up questions!

[MLN]

No it's not....On Squareup I price items either +GST/ Non-GST/ GST Exempt therefore my price is worked on the $8.00 + GST component in the Inventory setup:Inventory Setup to ADD GSTInvoiced Amount that ADDS GST so that I am CORRECTLY paid the $8.80 (the $8.00 for my work & the $0.80 which I declare on my BAS Returns for GST Reporting) 

You have a problem with the SQUAREOnline that it Imports the EX GST Component ONLY! It then undercuts the Seller's prices by the 10% by SQUARE declaring it as INCLUSIVE on the Checkout when it is actually NOT! Therefore at this stage I would honestly advise any Australian Businesses to be very wary of pricings as it it going to affected by less 10% when using the SQUAREOnline sites till this is rectified. The idea is great having the links to the other apps but it is a fatal flaw. I have since marked that I cannot accept orders/Bookings through the new website now...making it pretty much useless. (My Booking Prices are also affected similar to the Inventory Prices and therefore I can't use it) Also on the Appointment Booking it does not generate a source document eg. a paid Invoice other than a receipted payment so it is pretty hard to have to go through each appointment every month to pick up payments allocated from there unless I have directly Invoiced the Consults on the normal Square Invoicing- this only happens with more pre-meditated work, but for the Once-Off consults (i.e. requiring no follow-up) it should also happen but doesn't.  

[Seamus]

Hey @MLN

At the moment the Square Online platform doesn't support displaying/adding tax amounts in Australia, so unfortunately this isn't going to work in the way you're wanting it to for now. I certainly hope we add this functionality in the future as I can see how it's confusing for sellers! Compliant tax invoices for these transactions can still be issued from your Square Dashboard.

Because GST in Australia is an inclusive tax, this is why we denote that GST is included in the overall price on Square Online transactions. If you've set up the tax in a way where it's adding GST to an item's price instead of including it, you'd actually need to manually adjust the pricing for your products to take into account the GST amount, then edit the GST tax rate within Square to be an inclusive tax. So instead of selling an item for $8 and adding a 10% tax, you'd need to change the price to $8.80 and switch your tax rate to an inclusive 10% tax. This would ensure the prices you want displayed are consistent across Square POS and Square Online.

Generally speaking, I do also recommend speaking with an accountant or business finance adviser regarding using GST as an add-on tax rather than an inclusive one, to ensure what you've been doing here is compliant with Australian tax rules. I found some more information on this on the ACCC's website here, for general informational purposes.

The option to enter add-on taxes exists in Square because our POS app is designed to work with tax rules in different countries where it's common to add on taxes to an advertised price at point of sale (eg in the USA). For Australian Square accounts, we automatically include a GST tax option pre-set as an inclusive tax to keep things simple and in line with how GST should be charged. While our tools do allow the creation of both inclusive and add-on taxes, it remains your responsibility as the merchant to ensure you're setting up and displaying taxes in a manner compliant with local laws and regulations.

[MLN]

[MLN]

[MLN]

The ATO (Australian Tax Office) is the ruling body on Tax Affairs. GST | Australian Taxation Office (ato.gov.au) The ACCC are a Statutory Enforcing Body About the ACCC | ACCC

The link you have provided is over 20 years old!😯 The ACCC generally handles complaints from Consumers in this country. There is also a Home | Australian Financial Complaints Authority (AFCA)

I have attached the relevant screenshot evidence of the issues at hand. SquareOnline is saying it can be done but can't. If it can't be done then the systems and marketing should be updated please.