Scope of "Payee" and the issue of who the tax collector is

Currently the draft "Web Payments WG Charter" uses the following wording:
"enabling a simple purchase between payer (e.g., someone browsing an online
store from a laptop or mobile device) and payee (the merchant)"

How a sales tax gets handled depends on the jurisdiction and on the design
of the invoice/wallet/payment system.

In jurisdictions with a Value Added Tax (VAT), governments give merchants
no choice but to work as their tax collectors. In that scenario, the
current wording in the draft WG charter remains accurate, although it's
important to keep in mind (and in metadata) that there are two parts to
what the payee is receiving: the price + the tax. Intermingling these two
funds creates the requirement for subsequently dis-intermingling them.
(This is great for the accounting industry.)

The generic and permissively-licensed free/libre/open OnePass module that
we're designing at DataKinetics willl provide a way to liberate merchants
from the burden of being tax-collectors, even while following the sales tax
laws.  When the OnePass module is implemented, the VAT and other
consumption-side taxes will be handed directly, such that for each payer
(e.g., someone browsing an online store from a laptop or mobile device)
there are two or more payees (the merchant; the tax/excise agency)". This
system needs to providing validation information to the parties, but
implements a direct approach.

Love'm or hate'm, death & taxes are inescapable. I don't want to dabble
into the politics of that, all I do want to say is that "payee (the
merchant)" might be better as "payee (the merchant; the tax/excise agency;
etc.)".

If any others on this list would like to collaborate in the OnePass
free/libre/open project (not yet pushed out) to create this module, please
send me a line directly.

-- 
Joseph Potvin
Project Coordinator, on behalf of DataKinetics
Operations Manager | Gestionnaire des opérations
The Opman Company | La compagnie Opman
jpotvin@opman.ca
Mobile: 819-593-5983