Come On Lindens - Youre Taking Vat On Dollars

Come on Lindens if youre going to take VAT Let us pay in our own currencies at rates fixed in our own currency.

You're charging a tax because you have 'European presence' but not giving us the opportunity to pay in pounds (or euros)

Either let us pay at fixed rates in our own currencies - surely all you need to do is set up pay pal accounts from your european office) or quit your european office and cancel the VAT.

And I dont mean going through some third party to pay... I mean tiers set in pounds and euros not merely a conversion from dollars....

Why would you want to?

If the dollar was strenghtening against the euro there might be a good reason to insist on fixed euro rates for tier but as long as it's as weak as it is I'm more than happy to pay in US$.

Tier is cheaper, more L$ for your €... all is well .

That's not why you have to pay VAT.

but but but they said it wasn't weak anymores.
I haz a confuuuuuzed.

First, the dollar has been strengthening against the Euro since the beginning of Dec.

Second, regardless of the direction of the exchange rate, it's helpful to budget in advance. Having a fixed fee in local currency makes it easier for those users to plan, and the value of that planning may be more valuable than any benefit of minor and unpredictable changes in the exchange rate. (This ignores the unpredictability of LL's fees and policies, which affects everyone.)

Third, there's going to be a conversion fee in there somewhere. Chances are that LL can get a much better conversion rate than the individual users, just because of the quantities involved. It would be nice if they could share that savings with their users.

Unfortunately, the only way for LL to do fixed prices in non-US currencies is to assume the market risk associated with exchange rate fluctuations (or the cost of hedging that risk). I'm no expert in that sort of finance, but it seems unrealistic to expect it from a company the size of LL. Alternatively, they could just collect the VAT in Euros, but that, too, seems unrealistic. As far as I know, LL doesn't have a huge physical presence in other countries, and thus doesn't have a huge cost that needs to be paid in non-US currencies. (This is unlike some other companies, such as Amazon, which will have significant local costs per transaction for their customers all over the world.)