Why prices on the payment page are displayed including VAT

When a payment is created through an external website, API, or integration, Allpay by default considers that the transferred price of the product or service already includes VAT.

For example, if the website sends the following line item:

Product name: 116.82 ₪

Allpay displays this amount on the payment page as the final price of the line item:

Product name      116.82 ₪
Subtotal          99.00 ₪
VAT 18%           17.82 ₪
Total             116.82 ₪

This means that the line item price is displayed including VAT, while the breakdown below separately shows the amount before VAT, the VAT amount, and the total amount.

Why Allpay displays the line item price including VAT

There are two reasons for this: technical and legal.

Technical reason

When a payment is created through an external website or integration, Allpay receives already prepared data and assumes that the price submitted by the external website is the final price for the payer.

Allpay does not change the line item price and does not replace it with the price before VAT. We show the buyer the amount submitted by the website or integration.

This is especially important because the external website may have already calculated the price, discount, VAT, currency, subscription, or other conditions. Therefore, Allpay should not change the price of an individual line item at its own discretion.

Legal reason

The payment page is the screen the buyer sees before making the payment. Therefore, it is important to show a clear final price.

Israeli consumer protection law requires the full price of a product or service to be displayed to the consumer. The full price includes all mandatory charges, including VAT, if applicable.

The official explanation by the Consumer Protection and Fair Trade Authority also states that the full price of the product or service must be displayed.

Court practice usually interprets this requirement strictly: if the consumer is shown the price of a product or service without VAT, and VAT is added separately later, this may be considered a less transparent way of displaying the price.

Even if the total amount is shown below, a product line with a price before VAT may create the impression that the product is cheaper. It may also make it harder for the buyer to compare prices between different sellers.

For this reason, the safer and clearer approach for the payment page is to show each line item price including VAT, while displaying the breakdown separately below.

Accounting systems

Accounting systems may display the same payment differently.

For example, Morning may show the line item price before VAT, while EasyCount may show it including VAT.

Below is a screenshot with an example where the same payment is displayed differently in Morning and EasyCount:

Both options may be correct for an accounting document, as long as the final amounts match: the amount before VAT, the VAT amount, and the total amount.

However, the Allpay payment page is not an accounting document. It is the screen shown to the buyer before payment. Therefore, Allpay displays the line item price as the final price for the buyer, including VAT.