Taxes on transactions

[Gvalley]

Hi.  New to square.  I have figured out how to forward the processing fees (1.9%) for card payments to the customer, however the 1.9% also seems to come up when i'm processing cash payments.  I have been able to remove this for individual payments by clicking on the taxes in the checkout and removing this.  Does anyone know of an easier way of doing this?  Or is there a setting that i haven't found?

[Seamus]

Hey @Gvalley,

Thanks for getting in touch.

Please note, it’s not possible for the Square Point of Sale app to automatically apply a card surcharge to your sales. We recommend building card processing costs into the overall costs of the goods/services you're selling as you might other business operational costs and going surcharge free. The "Tax" setting is not intended to be used for surcharges, but for applying industry-specific taxes (eg alcohol and tobacco). So you can't remove a tax from cash transactions.

If you would like to pass on credit card processing charges to your customers, you can use the following to manually calculate what you would charge.

For transactions put through a Square Reader at 1.9%:
Transaction amount divided by 0.981
e.g. $100 / 0.981 = $101.94 - you'd add $1.94 as a 1.9% surcharge.


For “Card not Present” transactions at 2.2%:
Transaction amount divided by 0.978
E.g. $100 / 0.978 = $102.25 - you'd add $2.25 as a 2.2% surcharge.


Why Wouldn’t I Just Add 1.9% or 2.2%?
Square’s card processing fees are based on the overall transaction amount, so if you’re adding $1.90 to a $100 transaction, the transaction becomes $101.90, not $100. Using the above formulas accounts for this small change to the overall fee on transactions if you’re adding a surcharge


Should you decide to apply a surcharge, it is your responsibility adhere to Australian regulations as set out by the ACCC.
 

[Gvalley]

Thanks Sheamus.

What about for cash transactions that we are placing through the square.  It automatically wants to apply the charge surcharge?  Do we need to manually remove this?

[Seamus]

Hey @Gvalley,

You will need to manually remove this - the tax setting is not a surcharge feature and should not be used as one - otherwise you will indeed be applying this to all your transactions, card or otherwise.

[Tea_Stn_Bne]

Is there any way you could choose whether to apply the surcharge at the time of check out? Depending on the customer's payment options. And if yes, how to set up? Ta!

[Arie]

Hey @Tea_Stn_Bne,

Thanks for writing in with this question! We don't have an option to apply a surcharge on the point of sale at the moment. This is a popular feature request we're currently tracking, so we'll let you know as soon as we have an update on this front.