Why are people from the EU complaining about VAT to LL?

I don't care for the rules of english language as my native language is not english. I speak dutch, flemish, french, some german and yes i can also communicate with people who speak english but not so fluent as my native language. How is your dutch?

But i do care not to offend a group of people and for as far as i learned you don't say indians, or blacks or stuff like that in the US. But to keep it simple and not to conflict with the rules of english language "if you are not a descent from the apaches or some other tribe, you better shut up because else you are a descent from the farmers overhere or a descent from people who where imported for abuse.

grew up? come on! Somebody attacks you and then you go all cheer when they hang the wrong guy. Coool!!

Way to bring the maturity level of the thread up to the fourth grade.

quote 'Done - would you like Pie too? '

please - provided its not served by a member of the walton family

It's an advantage over what it was prior to the weakening of the USD over the past year, certainly. That's Economics 101.

You know something, if in europe they act like a child and some others are supposed to be adults, then by all means i start like being a child.
What else can i say

Now this is a first, I have never heard that taxation is good because it leads to higher wages. It seems to work the opposite everywhere else. Taxes go down. People have more money to spend, they buy more. This causes an increase in production. In order to keep good employees, the companies have to pay more or give more in benefits.

Right, and you are undoubtedly the descendant of those marauding tribes of usupers who swept into Europe, sweeping over lands that were not theirs, warring on the Romans and eventually defeating them, confiscating their lands, and usurping authority.

In other words, the descendant of the barbarians.

lol eurohippies and angry rednecks

Waaay off topic now... if the topic was ever appropriate to begin with. Strife...!!

I think you missed the point where I said that if taxes were lowered we'd be better off

But that's irrelevant. This thread can't change EU policy, and a big war between Europeans and US residents about where it's better to live is going to be completely irrelevant.

The question is if there is any way that LL can deal with this without, basically, crippling every European-owned business in SL. There is no way they can sell SL as an international commerce platform if it penalises people so heavily based on where they come from. Any dreams SL had of becoming "The Web 2.0" globally will be dashed in this situation - European businesses don't lose out that way on the Web 1.0, because locality spares them from competing directly against the US, and the US companies have to charge VAT too.

Oh you don't wanna know my whole heritage, yes we descent from barbarians just like we all descent from apes. Or is it already forbidden bu US laws to tie the human race to apes?

You do realize the the American Indians were immigrants from Asia don't you? And that there is growing evidence of European settlement in America before the Asians came here.
Populations move, they conquer, they take new lands for themselves. It is the nature of history.
But if you must know, my ancestors were kicked out of the British Isles and came to America in 1763.

Then you need to work on changing the policy of your governments and not ask the rest of the world to subsidize you for your government's failings.

Well as long as the EU wants to charge you all this exorbitant sales tax, I can't see any way out that equalizes things between you and everyone else without everyone else subsidizing you because you happen to live in a place that has an aggresive and high tax regime.

Would you rather be charged the same tier rate in Euro, VAT inclusive, rather than having the VAT tacked on? Because as has been shown, the cost for software is exactly that - resulting in an 89 - 100% markup on the US price, vis a vis your VAT rate, which only goes up to 25%. Sounds like tacking on the VAT is a better deal.

wow I step away for a couple of hours and look at all the fun you've been having without me! lol!

Without getting into the ins and outs of the various health systems, what one needs to look at is the level of taxation applied to the economy. In the US, currently, taxation accounts for something like 26-27% of GDP. In Europe, typically, it is another 10 percentage points higher.

That taxation pays for a range of goods, services and support provided by national/supranational (in the EU's case) governments. We as the electorate CHOOSE to pay those taxes by voting for various political parties and their manifestos.. none of which come without a cost. Something that is often not discussed fully enough at election time... I wonder why (well actually I don't lol).

There are ups and downs on both sides of this. I for one would rather receive medical treatment in the US because of its quality - achieved in no small measure by market forces - than in Europe. On the other hand, I would like the reassurance that my hypothetical expensive-to-treat illness and subsequent recovery will be financially supported whilst I am unable to earn (and my health insurance provider hasn't decided not to continue supporting the cost as it's no longer financially viable) - which is broadly the case in Europe. But without paying taxes at a far higher rate than now, achieving both sides of that equation simply isn't going to happen. And I have personal family experience of what it is like to be on the receiving end of a health bureaucracy.. in the end you become simply another statistic/target to be achieved.

How and ever.. it is down to US as the voters to choose what we want and then take responsibility and accountability for that electorate decision. And, please, no complaints about how you didn't vote for/don't like blah blah blah.. most of us here live in a democracy (of sorts) and the majority gets its agenda put in place. Don't like it... live somewhere where those rules don't apply. I guarantee you won't like it there more.

Inc

LOL, this is wisdom! As the Orthodox chant in their Divine Liturgy: "Sofia .. Orthoi!"

Yes i did know that asians followed reefs and found america that way. But i don't know about europeans settelement and if that's true your buts belong to us So as of today you will all pay 20+% VAT and will include VAT in all prices.

All your base are belong to us

And if European SL residents REALLY want to make a difference on the issue of VAT as it is applied to Second Life provision, write to your Member of the European Parliament. Admittedly, a few thousand active SL'ers across all of the EU out of the total population isn't much... but enough letters pointing out the financial implications for digital commerce both now and in the future might get a relook at their position. Can't say I'm hopeful of course....

Inc

African Americans
- all born in Africa by the rules of the English language

Some growing still to do methinks

IBTL

I cannot believe you just said that! I'm in the US, and for you to say that is insulting the EU's way they do things...I personally think the US is nothing anyways... We (the US) do NOTHING right...

There are several ways out.

One way is for LL to offer the option of paying tier in L$. They actually said, a few months ago, that this would be possible. No real money transaction with LL = no VAT. That might be too blatantly a dodge of course

Another way would be to do exactly the same that real businesses do in Europe. A "VAT-registered" European business has the ability to "pass on" its VAT to European customers. But Second Life businesses can't do that, because they can't tell when a customer is European or not, and they can't require the US-run businesses to charge VAT too - which was, actually, the original point of the 2003 internet VAT law that caused this; to prevent countries without VAT from outcompeting EU businesses for EU custom.

So, in other words, if LL simply charged European consumers extra L$ on all in-world purchases, which is given to Currency Linden to sell for US$ to pay the VAT, it would represent the real European business process far better, and wouldn't penalise EU businesses within SL. (Yes, it _would_ penalise EU _consumers_ somewhat, but being universal, the market would fairly adjust for that.)

What you are asking for is for LL to develop a regime that reflects the intent of the Brussels tax regulation. I see no wisdom in that whatsoever. Lower your taxes in RL. Don't muck around with SL to adjust for your RL government's actions.