Tier fees increased by tax

service tax .... its a shitter isnt it

I just got an email from LL!!

Hello, Tiana Whitfield.

We have identified that you reside in a European country. Accordingly, your next bill will reflect Value Added Tax (VAT) charged at the rate specified by your country. Please note that VAT applies to all payments to Linden Lab such as land sales, monthly maintenance fees and Premium subscription fees.
If you are eligible for a VAT exemption, you may submit proof of your exemption status, such as your VAT number, here:
https://secondlife.com/account/vat_enter_id.php

If you have other questions, please read the VAT FAQ:
http://secondlife.com/corporate/vat.php

You can also contact us via the support portal:
http://secondlife.com/support

Best regards, and thank you for your continuing support.

Linden Lab
Creators of Second Life

---

My Japanese friend got this notice about VAT as well, even though her credit card and bank are both Japanese. Has anybody else who doesn't live in the EU received that email? I'm wondering if Linden Labs sent this email to all non-Americans by accident. =P

Has she ever lived in Europe? Maybe attending university when she signed up? According to the URL posted, it's based on the mailing address given at signup.

Heh. This applies to auctions too. I wonder if this is going to slow down JB any.

LOL! Please tell me you missed a couple of zeroes off that figure.

68 cents is not going to appease anybody.

I dunno about this Des. You're not buying the L$ from LL; you're buying them from another resident through the LindeX. The only thing that you might owe LL is VAT on the commission rate. I can't see that LL could conceivably tack on a VAT to a private purchase?

What I don't understand is as follows - if I was correct, what becomes of the LindeX?

The Lindex could be hit hard.

If offsite exchanges inherently become tax dodge mechanisms, that may 'seem' like a dodge but I can't see tax officials being far behind, or blind to it. They aren't stupid and think about all these sorts of things.

This may ultimately cause problems with the legitimate operation of non-LindeX exchanges.

u won`t be able to evade VAT trough the slx
LL uses ur account info AND IP adress to determen ur location, so if u have any land, u`ll be paying tax as they will charge u with the VAT either trough paypal/cc/inworld earnings or sle L$ buys and convert on the lindex

But the VAT FAQ says that Linden transactions between residents do not get VAT attached. As far as SLX is concerned, that is a Linden transaction inworld. The money is not paid to LL, that is paid to another resident. Playing this logic through, the private resident should then in turn collect the tax and pay the EU for it. (logically paralleling the way land owners are supposed to be morally and legally responsible for what goes on in their land - treating us as quasi-sovereign for legal purposes when it suits them but pwning us in every other sense).

can someone post the VAT FAQ link again? I missed it about 10 pages back and can't find it on the SL website (way to bury it, LL.)

Well see that's just the thing.

Say Joe Euro has a bit of land in a private estate. Say he's not an SL businessman or merchant or anything; just a user here for fun.

He rings up SLExchange and gets a bit of $L - it is paid to his account by Exchange Street. He then pays it to a land baron, who gives him X months of time for that $L.

Where would they be taxed?

Meantime, question is - would they even need to go to SLExchange? Would LindeX work the same way?



Oddly, this may mean a *terrible* hit for the Company themselves.

1) upsetting Euro customers
2) having to charge more for direct, mainland-style 'ownership' of land
3) subsequent fallout on economy via trickledown

I'm all for following the law; that's how you stay in business long term. I'm just trying to get my head around all this.

*Should* euro folks be paying this sort of tax on services? I'm not in the EU, I have no idea how this should work.

Here's something I am trying to grasp.

So LL is going to add the VAT to anything they bill you for. Fine. If you are registered as a business, or if you go out and register now, and you register for taxes, then fine, you can give LL your tax number to show that you shouldn't be paying them the VAT.

But now, as a registered business, you must collect VAT on your sales, right?

The only thing in SL that I sell for *real* money is L$ on the LindeX. I use the LindeX because it is fast and easy and the US$ goes right into my account to pay my fees. If I use any other exchange I have to go through a bunch of annoying hoops like transfer to paypal then from paypal to my LL account.

Anyhow, so this is what I am trying to understand: For arguments sake, I'm a business, I'm tax exempt because I'm a tax-registered business, and when LL bills me, the VAT is either not charged or it's a write-off. But when I do sales, I have to collect VAT now right? How do I add the VAT to my LindeX sales? Whom do I bill?

LL is facilitating a sale between me and other residents for L$ which I am selling for real US$ and that is a real transaction. If I am obligated to collect VAT on my sales of real goods and services, how do I collect it in this case?

-Atashi

http://secondlife.com/corporate/vat.php


Hmmm does this mean EU residents get to gamble...now that we are following our own countries rules and regulations? HA HA!

Emails from LL via Verticalresponse are currently being sent to EU residents *( a bit late in the day, literally)

]]]]]]]]]]]]]]

Hello, [avatar name].

We have identified that you reside in a European country.
Accordingly, your next bill will reflect Value Added Tax (VAT) charged
at the rate specified by your country. Please note that VAT applies
to all payments to Linden Lab such as land sales, monthly maintenance
fees and Premium subscription fees.
If you are eligible for a VAT exemption, you may submit proof of your
exemption status, such as your VAT number, here:
https://secondlife.com/account/vat_enter_id.php

If you have other questions, please read the VAT FAQ:
http://secondlife.com/corporate/vat.php

You can also contact us via the support portal:
http://secondlife.com/support

Best regards, and thank you for your continuing support.


**********************************************************************
Linden Lab
Creators of Second Life

---

Safeguard your Second Life account! See the Security category of our
blog for tips on protecting your account.

[[[[[[[[[[[[

Mmmm, a little vague - that could equally mean that your next bill will just read text similar to:

"$295 (of which 43.94 is VAT)"

as that they are increasing the monthly payment...

Matthew

Like many, I'm pretty miffed about this. In the UK, the price of goods and services stated by the vendor/service provider includes VAT unless otherwise stated. Unless the company/individual has stated 'excl VAT', they can't then charge an extra 17.5% on top. I suppose it's one of those things that no amount of ranting can resolve, but seriously Linden Lab, very badly handled!

Well, it is about 7 or 8 Euro per month more for me... so not a really a big amount for me. And if I can support "our health care and social system" with that, I am more then willing to pay that (sorry, couldn't resist).

Thing where I am completely <bleip> am about is the complete no communication from LL towards us and how we get pushed it through our throat.

I feel very sorry for those that now are now faced with a big increase of payment and most likely a drop in income.

Morwen.

From the VAT faq, reposted here to ease searching for it:
(not that I understand it, I'm reading it myself)
======================================================


Value Added Tax

In accordance with the sales tax regulations of European Union countries in which our Residents live, we must collect and remit Value Added Tax, or VAT, from Residents.



Who should be charged VAT? Currently, only Residents who live in the European Union are charged VAT. The EU allows people and companies to register for VAT exemption, which we abide by.



How does Linden Lab determine who to charge VAT for? When you registered your account, you told us what country you live in. If that country is in the EU, then VAT is applied.

If you say that you come from a different country that doesn't charge VAT, it's very likely that discrepancies between your IP address and your declared country would get caught in our risk detection system and may cause your account to be flagged for review or even suspended.



What are the items for which Linden Lab charges VAT? Anything that you pay Linden Lab for will have VAT applied. This includes:

1. Premium account registration
   
2. Purchases from the Land Store
   
3. Land use fees (tier)
   
4. Private Region fees
   
5. Land auctions
   

What are the items for which Linden Lab doesn't charge VAT? Transactions in L$ between individual Residents are not subject to VAT.



How can I tell what items had VAT charged? Your account history page will display the transactions you made and the VAT charged on each one, if applicable.



I have a VAT registration ID that makes me exempt from VAT. How do I enter it? If you're registering for a new account, there's a step where you can enter your VAT registration ID.

If you have an existing account for which you want to enter your VAT registration ID, click here to enter it.

ok, sry for missing the crucial point wich i though was u figured out

this only is for land holders from LL (mainland + estate owners)
renting from an US or outside the EU person and u won`t be paying VAT obvisously, renting from them will be the future

LL just killed the entire land market in favor for US and outside of the EU residents (i know i`ll be ditching and quitting)

How did they kill it? Just tier down to what your budget will allow.

LOL! Next thing you know, in addition to "adult ban lines" we'll have "EU ban lines," where only EU residents are allowed in, to gamble at the EU casinos.

LOL!

And when we go in to have our prim babies.. it will be free as we paid our tax into the health care system...

ooh this could be fun!

If you own an island, you can't "tier down" - you get rid of it.

If you own mainland, yes, you can tier down - but the cost of what you hold goes up immensely with every tier you drop. If you are a landlord, you become non-competitive very very fast. If you are a merchant, your bottom line per m2 has gone up.

oh i`m about to do it, waiting for some 1 to come online so i can tier down an island