PayPal Rest API Capture AUTHORIZATION_AMOUNT_LIMIT

Question

For Express checkout, when I create a payment with intent=authorize. after calculate shipping and tax, if the shipping + tax is greater than 15% of the original payment amount I got the error "AUTHORIZATION_AMOUNT_LIMIT_EXCEEDED". It is very common that shipping + tax exceeds 15% of the original total especially for smaller and heavy items. What will be the way to go around it? thanks,

Additional info: when I look at classic PayPal express checkout's first step, It's not required to set any amount to log in to PayPal in order to retrieve shipping address, how do we do this with REST API?

https://developer.paypal.com/docs/classic/express-checkout/integration-guide/ECGettingStarted/#id084RM05055Z

Answer 1

You are not getting this error from DoEc, but later when you are later calling DoCapture on the authorization you generated in DoEC, right?

If so, then you are up against one of PayPal's protections for its consumers, which is that they don't allow merchants to get agreement for one price but then charge the buyer a much higher price. This is to avoid bad buyer experiences.

You basically have three options:

1) You can call PayPal CS and ask them to give you special permission to exceed the 115% limit. If you have enough history & volume with PayPal without generating disputes from users, then they may give you this permission. But this permission is usually only extended to large/trusted brands.

2) You can add an estimated tax, shipping and handling charge to the auth in Express Checkout. You would still tell the user that precise tax and shipping will be calculated when the item is shipped and their exact cost will vary. But your estimated charge should get you within 115% of the total. (Note: you usually should be able to get tax precisely at time of sale....)

3) You can decide on a fixed shipping and handling charge that allows you to cover your costs in aggregate and charge that in the EC flow. Yes, on one item that is larger/heavier than you expect you may loose $5, but on another that is smaller & lighter you will come out $5 ahead. This is what most people do.

Answer 2

That you may consider the PayPal InstantUpdate API, which allows you to update the tax & shipping calculation on the PayPal order review page (with AJAX).

Or alternatively, the common practice is to make the calculation before your payment request API call, on your website checkout flow (when customer fills in the shipping address and select shipping method), submit the precise amount to PayPal and then make the redirection.