[boulos]

Warning: IANAL. First, sorry for the pain! As an explanation, it's all about VAT (determining it, collecting it, etc.). Outside of Ireland we dump it on you:

https://support.google.com/cloud/answer/6090602

But specifically:

> “Business” status means that you'd like to see a potential economic benefit from your development activities, for example: using the Google Cloud Platform to develop prototypes or applications with a view to generating revenue in the future. Most software developers -- including affiliates, sole traders, self-employed merchants, partnerships, students and others -- use Google Cloud Platform for business purposes.

I can't help you decide what your VAT on the use of our services would be (this is the realm of accounts and lawyers). I know AWS makes a different decision than we do, and we're very aware of the friction (again, sorry!).

Disclaimer: I work on Compute Engine, but again IANAL.

[tomh-]

Thanks for your answer, although its worrying we need to have a lawyer around to see how we can signup without accidentally violating my local country's VAT regulations as a developer who just wants to pay and build stuff :(