By DStealth
With this new data center available DigitalOcean’s term “Canadian Customers” is rather ambiguous. Do you mean to say customers that use the Canadian data center or are you using our payment methods to determine where we are from and charging us GST even if we’re using US data centers?
More importantly, if I am using the Toronto Data Center and paying Canadian tax, will I also then be getting charged in CAD for my monthly fee? If you’re charging me in US funds for a Canadian tax then your scamming all of us.
This textbox defaults to using Markdown to format your answer.
You can type !ref in this text area to quickly search our full set of tutorials, documentation & marketplace offerings and insert the link!
All billing done by DigitalOcean is done in US Dollars, otherwise we would not be able to provide a consistent price to all our users. Canadian users are billed via our Canadian subsidiary for all services. Currently Canadian residents are charged GST just as EU residents are charged VAT.
The CRA requires DigitOcean to charge you the tax rate applicable in your province. DigitalOcean is calculating tax on the USD amount before any exchange rate is factored in which is certainly not a scam. Id call that appropriate business practice.
For example (based on Ontario’s HST):
13% of $10.00 USD is $1.30 USD 13% of $10.00 CAD is $1.30 CAD
Truth be told, if a business operating in Canada charges its customers in a foreign currency, such is the case with DigitalOcean, the Canadian dollars they actually receive may be greater or lesser than the amount they must pay the Canadian government.
So sure, there is a chance they are lining their pockets with a few extra cents. But keep in mind, that goes both ways; its all dependent on what the exchange rate was at the time of the transaction and whether DigitalOcean deems the transaction to have occurred the day the consideration is paid or the day they acquire the foreign currency; both of which are acceptable in the eyes of the CRA.
Become a contributor for community
Get paid to write technical tutorials and select a tech-focused charity to receive a matching donation.
DigitalOcean Documentation
Full documentation for every DigitalOcean product.
Resources for startups and SMBs
The Wave has everything you need to know about building a business, from raising funding to marketing your product.
The developer cloud
Scale up as you grow — whether you're running one virtual machine or ten thousand.
Get started for free
Sign up and get $200 in credit for your first 60 days with DigitalOcean.*
*This promotional offer applies to new accounts only.