Tier fees increased by tax

Definitely. That's unconsciable. I can't wait to see the BS blog post explaining it, and the apologists who will defend it.

You can't pay your tier inworld if you are paying to LL. So does that mean you are paying to an estate owner? If so, this should not affect you (unless your estate owner pays VAT and raises your rent to cover their new monthly increase).

The rate varies by state.
In Ireland, we have a 21% rate. For consumers, VAT is a tax on expenditure, levied on money paid out of already taxed income. However, a VAT-registered business basically pays a nett VAT amount of Sales VAT less Purchase VAT.

And yes, we have Income tax too.
And we also have a Social Welfare (PRSI) tax, a duplicate tax, which is independently calculated on the full gross income, regardless of the tax credits applied to the completely separate income tax calculated from full gross income.
If you follow me

gutted

I do not understand what you are saying here. It is state by state. Florida was at something like 6% in 2005. Washington D.C. normally hits you hard (but not 17.5%), etc.

what ever google is making is sure starting to sound and look as a good alternative...

Just as I was about to up my tier level from a half sim to a full sim, I won't be now.

Just as things were starting to look like recovering from the casino saga and massive drops in land prices & sales they drop this bombshell on us, how many more people will now sell land and tier-down?!

What makes it worse is we didn't even get any notification, it just appeared on the my account page, this whole thing stinks

As much as I love sl, i'm getting really dis-heartened with it recently, i'm not at the point of throwing in the towel just yet, but this has certainly pushed me further in that direction

25% up here (it's a three-tiered system where some things are 12% and others 5%, but I expect SL would not qualify for the lower rates).

There's a reason we have things like universal health care and comprehensive welfare systems. Personally I don't really mind too much, given that.

You just raise more questions.

Doesn't this mean that European PI owners are now at a disadvantage to their worldwide counterparts?

They are paying more for their sims after all.

25%!! Did you hear that Sensual Casanova? Now I know how you felt when you saw the 17.5% figure.

Wait a minute, so I'm assuming Americans pay no sales tax at all for tier fees in SL? If there's any tax included in the tier fee already that would mean Europeans were being taxed twice and being taxed on tax.

at times like this..I REALLY want Lindens Labs to just fold and go under..but not till after a replacment comes along....
but they stilll have a few more "updates" till the end of the year
if your a euro..start selling you land and fast and dont but any account from sl again

As others have pointed out, there is not one common VAT rate in the different countries in the EU.

Here are the 2006 rates for the countries who were members in 2006 :
(Some countries have a system with reduced rates for certain kind of stuff, like food or books etc. - but theese are the standard rates)

Belgium 21%
Czech Republic 19%
Denmark 25%
Germany 16%
Estonia 18%
Greece 19%
Spain 16%
France 19.6%
Ireland 21%
Italy 20%
Cyprus 15%
Latvia 18%
Lithuania 18%
Luxembourg 15%
Hungary 20%
Malta 18%
Netherlands 19%
Austria 20%
Poland 22%
Portugal 21%
Slovenia 20%
Slovak Republic 19%
Finland 22%
Sweden 25%
United Kingdom 17.5%

Just started a thread on that subject. /327/49/213257/1.html

Thanks Irene. I was just looking for a chart like that. Commiserations to our Scandinavian neighbours who it seems will be hit the hardest.

I've just looked into this VAT situation and discovered that Ebay recently started collecting VAT for items sold by sellers based in the EU too. It seems to confirm my theory that this can of worms has been opened because LL are accepting payments via the UK.

If they kept their payment processing in the USA, this wouldn't be happening to us.

Sorry thought it was obvious I am from Colorado and it is 3.62% here

Yes and yes. Unless the US tax charge is on its way to us, unannounced as well...

mmhmm!

Only if they are running the PI on their own personal (hobby/lifestyle/avocation) behalf. Additionally, and separately from this new VAT question, they would always have been well advised to declare net income for income tax purposes.

If they are VAT registered, then there is no effect apart from a slight alteration to bookkeeping and cash-flow routines.

If it is I bet there is gona be one HELL of a sell off lol
wonder if they start chargeing tax on interest from banks to..ok dont really wonder know the answer already lol

I think if any US residents get hit with a sales tax, it will be Californians since LL is located there. A blog post about this would certainly be appreciated.


*edit*
Saddly the US Congress is trying to figure out how to tax virtual worlds too. So it won't be long for us either.

A decent warning/mail/whatever would have been nice, just re-upgraded to premium and purchased mainland yesterday after building back my confidence from being pissed off at LL the last time. Shouldnt have bothered it seems as now ill be getting stung again, and why no mention/warning of vat when i did the upgrade on the account?

here`s a small addon for the SL economy overall

buying 10000L$ at 266 = $37.89

say everage of 20% VAT

10000L$ at 266 = $37.89 + 20% = 45.468 = $1/219.93

they wanted to expand yet this will cause ppl to think twice of getting in here, i won`t be buying any L$ at THAT rate ever!

Why are you people mad at LL? It is your freakin governments robbing you blind. But the blame where it belongs, on the parasites in your capitals.