• by Laurie Sullivan  @lauriesullivan, September 1, 2020

Marketers using Google Ads to reach consumers in the United Kingdom, Austria and Turkey will begin to see country-specific fees on their monthly advertising invoice beginning November 1.

Google said in an email on Tuesday that it will add the fees to advertisers’ Google Ads costs once at the end of every month.

The fees are addition to the account budget. For example, when advertisers have a budget of €100 and accrue €5 in Austria DST Fees for ads served in Austria, marketers will be billed €105, plus taxes, such as VAT, that may apply in the specific country. 

Regulatory Operating Costs at Google are being added as a result of significant increases in complexity and cost of complying with regulations in Turkey. In Austria and the United Kingdom, the DST fee is driven by the new digital services tax in these countries, according to the email.

Amazon was the first to pass on the U.K. digital tax to sellers in August. Ads served by Google in the U.K. will see a 2% U.K. DST fee in the country across Search and YouTube.

The U.K. digital tax was announced by former Chancellor Philip Hammond earlier this year. The tax also is expected to affect other companies selling ad space in these countries such as Apple, eBay, Facebook, and Microsoft.

In August, eBay U.K. wrote in a post it would not pass on to sellers U.K.’s Digital Services Tax that passed on April 1, 2020. “We wanted to reassure you that we won’t [pass on the tax], so you will not be charged additional new fees as a result of this tax,” eBay U.K. wrote, addressing its approximately 300,000 sellers in the country.

Google also will apply a 5% Austria DST fee for ads served in that country, and a 5% regulatory operating fee in Turkey.

The fees will show on a separate line item per country in the invoice or statement.

Advertisers will also see them in the “Transaction” section of the Google Ads account. Any taxes, such as sales tax, VAT, GST or QST that apply in a specific country, also may apple to the new fees.

Google also provides tips on adjusting ad account budgets to consider the increase in taxes and regulatory charges.

Account budgets, as marketers know, are required for advertisers who pay monthly invoices. They are used to control the amount spent over time.

To create or edit a budget, marketers need an Admin, Standard, or billing-only access to the paying manager account and the manager account needs to be linked to the payments profile.

When marketers use an automatic or manual payment settings, they can use campaign budgets to control costs.