How to get tax exemption applied to accounts that are not business?

[oduminstitute]

I'm still not clear on how to get tax exemption applied to accounts that are not business ones. None of the community answers explains it.

[Fiona]

Hello @oduminstitute. 

A tax exemption can be offered to non-profit or educational institutions that are on Dropbox Business and Dropbox Professional subscriptions. However, we're unable to offer tax exemptions for Dropbox Plus subscriptions at this time.

You just send us proof of tax exemption and we forward it to our billing team to process your request. 

Let me know if you want me to send you an email to start this process for you. 

Alternatively, you could contact our Support with this documentation any time. 

Feel free to ask more questions! 

[TopDrop]

This is not helpful. Tax exemption shouldn't be based on what I'm purchasing. I shouldn't need to buy a more expensive plan to qualify for tax exemption. Tax goes to the government; why is Dropbox charging tax on ANYTHING if a buyer is tax exempt?

[Rich]

It's likely that Dropbox takes this stance because Basic and Plus accounts are personal accounts, intended for individuals, not businesses, while Professional and Business accounts are intended for and generally used for business purposes.

[TopDrop]

Thanks, Rich. That's indeed the response I've received so far from Dropbox. The challenging thing about this is that they are shifting non-profit (tax exempt) customers to much higher-priced products that don't serve our needs any better than the Plus accounts do. Ultimately, if we need to pay $199 in order to be tax exempt, that is at least $60 more than the cost of just paying the tax on the $129 "Plus" account. If this were just my decision, I'd pay the tax on Plus and move on. However, like many other large educational organizations that are tax exempt, we are not allowed to submit receipts for reimbursement that include taxes that our non-profit is not required to pay. I'd like to stay with Dropbox, but it's looking like it isn't going to be possible given Dropbox's policy "at this time." When I asked our organization what I could do, they told me to switch over to OneDrive, which is already included in our Microsoft service.

I wish Dropbox was able to provide tax exemption for all three of its pricing levels and let their customers decide what services in each level best suit their needs. Simply calling a product a "business" level product doesn't mean it meets our non-profit needs any better than their "plus" product. By contrast, Dropbox competitor "Box" not only offers tax exemption, but a massively discounted option for qualified non-profit customers.

:( 

[rpbala]

I am dealing with the same issue. I am with a large public university in the NorthEast and dropbox is giving me a hard time. I have been a long term user of DB and have not been charged tax until this year.  I will be looking to migrate to Box or OneDrive.