New 2.5% Surcharge for Canadian Ads: What You Need to Know About The Canada DST Fee
Google has just announced a new fee for Canadian advertisers, titled “Canada DST Fee,” which will be implemented starting October 1, 2024. This 2.5% surcharge will be applied to ads served in Canada and is intended to cover the costs associated with complying with digital services tax legislation announced in the 2020 Fall Economic Statement here in Canada.
This surcharge will appear as a separate line item on invoices and in the “Transactions” section of advertisers’ Google Ads accounts. For those using monthly invoicing or automatic payments, this fee will be added on top of the existing budget. For advertisers on manual payment plans, this fee will be deducted from their next prepayment once their existing balance is fully utilized. This change affects both Google Ads and YouTube placements purchased on a reservation basis, with the surcharge being added directly to the budget for media plans. Below is the email I received.
Link to their support doc:
https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/9750227
This continues the trend of Google doing whatever it takes to increase profits and to protect their bottom line. They recently announced that they would be switching some of their customers over to invoice payments to save on credit card fees. Is Google really in that much trouble that scratching and clawing at every dime is what is required to keep profits up?
UPDATE: 2:25pm 08/01/2024
I have already seen chatter on X from Canadians blaming our government for this action by Google. Although I don’t necessarily support this legislation, I am growing tired of massive corporations passing the fee on to consumers while others take the blame.
