Tier fees increased by tax

Oh and if anyone from LL ever reads these forums. You should change any pages with pricing adverts to include "Does not include VAT" or you're likely to fall foul of the law.

This has nothing to do with it, if it did then everyone would be being charged VAT. Unless they split SL into regions, such as SL Europe, SL America.

Many of us do sympathize, but what can we do about it? The only thing we can do is complain like everyone else in these forums and be just as ignored as well. We can threaten to sell off and leave but honestly I have seen people say this way to many times and they are still here. It amazes me how much the community is willing to put up with how things are run. We have to bend over and take it just like everyone else.

/me scratches her head

I'm confused -.-

Can somebody tell me what the present sales tax is in California? I presume that LL have already built that into it's pricing and that now I should be immediately rebated that amount otherwise I'm being taxed for a tax I'm already paying.

I thought that services provided by a service provider not having a PE in the EU were not VATable. Is there a new regulation on this?

No they do not build it into pricing. It doesnt apply to you unless you reside in CA.

I think the maximum is 8.75% but I may be wrong. I do not believe this service is taxable though.

Yes and it's very contradictory. It's all about where the service is used, if the service is used for business purposes and whether the supply is in the country of origin or the country of use.

Well apparently this law came into being in 2003, so it's not new new. I'd imagine that LL thought that as it was a private individual using the service it was exempt, they seem to have changed their mind.

Ah, I see. Thanks for that info. I wasn't aware of that regulation.

The plot thickens then. Maybe their auditors have .. ahem .. kicked the bin on this one. Auditors are basically running companies now anyway, post-Enron. I would not be at all surprised if their outside auditors surfaced this issue and LL were not aware of it.

Completely OT, I just wanted to say Thank You for your beautiful home designs, Damianos!

Compettive implies business which means NO DIFFERENCE.

Companies should be tax registered which means they're tax excempt.

The only people hit by this are those running for Social/Pleasure with no business supporting.

Companies are not tax exempt at all. The end user has to pay the VAT, which is only applicable if you're charging by paypal as L$ is exempt and if all your business is exempt you can't file to be VAT registered and therefore can't claim VAT back.

No, new sim owners still pay the old rate for class 4 sim transfers.

The policy is up for revisitation on Jan 1st 2008 according to the last word ont he subject by LL.

There has been a special "I have a question about VAT charges" ticket option since late yesterday afternoon so I don't think it's an omission. Anyone could have just posted the contents of the email to the blog and left it at that with no further information as well.

It seems they just opted to go the silent route with this one, as they have done with other things in the past (ie the password reset for several ten thousand accounts never made it to the blog either).

exactly

thats the same in germany

to me it looks like LL simply broke the contract with all europeans, and took money from them without mthe right to do so.

i don´t pay LL and i am not an expert, but can´t every person from europe just order their cc company or whatever to get the money back and cancel the contact with LL?

exactly

thats the same in germany

to me it looks like LL simply broke the contract with all europeans, and took money from them without mthe right to do so.

i don´t pay LL and i am not an expert, but can´t every person from europe just order their cc company or whatever to get the money back and cancel the contract with LL?

Well if anyone talks to a Linden live or inworld, please report it here. And please urge them to break the silence.

I live in California but it does not matter. I think what has gone on here in the last 36 hours and the way LL has not said a word publicly is a disgrace. Just when I think they can't handle something any more poorly than the last botched issue, they raise the bar. And lower my respect for them and my faith in the company that I pay a lot of money to every month.

LL should allow EU residents to pay land fees using l$ instead of US dollars

They can't tax virtual money (I hope)

They should allow ALL users to pay land fees using L. Of course that bungles up their LindeX numbers, as it would show an increase in sales - but there might be a corresponding increase in buys. Who knows.

lindex numbers are the same if they "burn" the l$ used to pay land fees

They are able to create l$ they take real money if someone buy l$

How can they pay their own expenses in RL using Linden dollars?

I've always seen this coming. Linden Lab has commited tax fraud for years, by not charging this VAT.
To set the record straight: The EU VAT applies to every company outside the EU that provides goods or services over the internet to EU citizens. This law has been in place for years now; we can thank those idiots in Brussels.

The reasoning behind this law: companies within the EU already pay VAT on their wares to their home country. Companies outside the EU don't, so they can offer their wares cheaper. To keep it fair, they have to charge customers within the EU a higher price. The percentage depends on the VAT of the customer's home country, but to avoid administrative efforts, they usually just charge 17.5%.
What the retards in Brussels fail to realize is that EU companies who rely on services outside the EU (like SL in my case) can't compete on an international market anymore.

Blizzard, SOE and NCSoft have been charging VAT for years. I remember when SOE announced the price increase for SWG about 5 years ago. Linden Lab was one of the few MMOG publishers to ignore EU law, thereby commiting tax fraud (which they now might face charges for or have to pay fines for). I hoped they'd get away with it, but it seems they didn't.




Relocating LL won't change anything; as long as they are still located outside the EU, the VAT laws apply to them. If they were located inside the EU, the VAT would be applicable to all prices, no matter who they sell to; so everyone would have to pay 15-20% more. It's the customer who has to relocate if she or he wants to stop paying the rotten eggheads in Brussels, or rather the eggheads of their own government where the money ends up.

I always change l$ in us dollars to pay land fees they don't take real money (from me) in this way.

I'll try and make Robin's office hours on Tuesday and post the log (or simply drop it on you in-world if there's no longer an active thread by then) if the topic comes up .