Vat (value Added Tax)

I was retiring to bed 6 hours ago and I saw an email from LL in my email client as I took a final look. Curious I thought, my next Island fee is not due I have not ordered any new ones for a while because of the crazy amount of land they have issued. Then I read the VAT bombshell. For those who don't know yet this is going to be a lot worse than the anti gambling shock.
VAT is an EU Tax charged to EU residents by their respective governments and applies to nearly all things except clothes, food, books and medicines. It also applies to just about every service.
It can be claimed back from the VAT authorities if you register for VAT, but............. and it is a big but, you can only claim it back if you are charging it to the end user (in my case the island residents). If I charge a Euro Tax to an American or a Brazilian or anyone of hundreds of countries that don't belong to the EU how long will they stay on my sims? In fact how long will other Europeans stay when they can move to other sims and not have to pay Tax (YET)?
If you are not European do not think this will not affect you. Should large numbers of Europeans leave and large numbers of sims are abandoned or sold cheap, the already disastrous prices of land will probably finally completely collapse. You also need to ask yourself exactly what is the next stage. Local State and Federal taxes being introduced in other countries? I do not believe that this move to tax some sl residents is going to stop here and if it does, is it fair that one section of SL residents pay a tax that other sections don't?
Ask yourself too, how many times is this called a virtual world ergo another world or country. We already, all of us pay a form of Linden tax in this world, if you own land you pay tier fees if you own a premium account you pay premium fees, if you change Lindens to US$ credits you pay around 12% currency change tax.
Today I will research VAT law in the UK and see what my liabilities will be. At the moment on 10 sims I make around 500US$ profit per month for 14 - 18 hours days, my increase in tier fees with 17.5% VAT will be just over 500US$. So I can work for the European Tax authorities and earn nothing or I can enjoy what little is left in sl and dispose of my islands or go back to RL.
Stay tuned in case their are some cheap islands going.

Already being discussed here: /327/1a/213247/1.html

feel ur pain as i`m hoping to perhaps have an buyer soon to take mine

Sorry Ann shows how crap the search engine is then. I will copy it over

Although I am in the USA and this tax won't affect me & my tier this month-it will certainly affect me somehow down the line. It has been a very sad and disappointing Second Life this summer. First LL killed the land market in their greed-of course they said it was to "help control land prices"-then they flooded the market with not one but two major continents of "protected water sims" to compete with private island owners-then they banned gambling with no notice causing tons of land to be abandoned. Now pushing the age verification onto us instead of taking care of it on their end. Now this. This summer saw my 7 sims gradually empty. Not due to my lack of sevice-but due to the overwhelming free or nearly free land & when island owners couldn't attract folks by giving the land away many lowered their tier to barely breaking even just to keep their sims. Whereas I used to have a waiting list of potential residents and filled a sim in a matter of days-my islands sit half empty. Why? Because the folks trying to keep their sims while competing against LL have been FORCED to slash land and tier rates to nothing.

I go look around SL-I see that I am not alone-most all private sims (except those that LL favored by giving them newbie arrival points) sit half empty or worse. You can wander for hours on many many sims and NEVER see another avater!

Sadly the world created by, imagined by, & ran by its residents is dying. Not from any lack of love for the "game" or the virtual world-but due to the fact that LL has killed it as surely as putting a knife into its back.

Of course it is great to see that LL has gotten their new deal with Ebay through-to auction of the land they'll get back. Again never thinking of providing a safe way for the island owners to sell their sims & recoup some form of return.

You can not tell me that LL just decided this-they had plenty of time to let residents know-at least a month in advance to allow them time to adjust their budgets. But I guess since they did the same thing with gambling & got away with it-why not just dump it on us & force us to deal with it?

What LL is not understanding-and perhaps only will when we cease to log in-is that a little fairness & notice would go along ways in making these huge impact changes.

Sadly-I see my beloved world of SL gradually dwindling away into the sunset-almost like the great Roman & Egyptian cultures that no one thought could die.

I just hope before LL decides to hold the wake and shut the grid forever-they at least can find the time to notify us in advance-unlike all the major changes they have not bothered to notify us about.

don`t forget that the most important impact on sl has YET to recieve a blog with all the info with EXACTLY how much % we will be paying extra per country so that the guessing wtf the final price would is put to rest

as it`s now i`m betting on the maximum % it could be here in holland wich is 19% and the lowest is the 4.5% wich i hope is the miracle i`m waiting for

ffs can`t even sleep as of waiting to hear back from a potential buyer or just simply the fact i won`t be able to get any sleep at all

US residents should pay whatever their state's sales tax is, if it's going to be applied fairly.

I wonder why Linden Lab is the first company to tax its overseas members when bigger places like Blizzard and Electronic Arts have made no such announcement... although, to be fair, I haven't heard any government stuff here about it either.

Broccoli

The fact is LL are already paying this tax to the British government on our behalf via their Brighton office, so it is right and proper that the cost be passed on to us.

Feel free to emigrate to the USA if you object to this.

As to the amount - well it may be 19% in Holland, but to the best of my knowledge LL do not have an office or any other presence in Holland. Infact, really the only EU country they do operate in is the UK, so will probably charge the 17.5% rate.

VAT is currently charged on utility bills, such as telephone bills or electricity bills, in the UK, so it is not a huge leap of logic to apply the charge to online service provision. LL will be issued with a VAT number by HM Customs and Exports (who now fulfill the role of the now defunct Inland Revenue) and this number must be provided to any customer paying VAT on request - that way we can be sure that LL are actually being charged by the government, and not just sneakily bumping up their prices 17.5% and claiming they pay VAT to the government.

Just checked my account and Tier fees for the next month have already been increased by VAT, but not the premium subscription fee.

First sensible comment I've seen on this.

I want to emigrate to a new virtual world as soon as one exists that treats their customers like adults and does not sandbag them with no public communications on huge issues such as this.

/me places an tracer on ray to boldly go where some 1 else has gone befor

sorry, that person is still in place and does not want company.

i think it`s clearly stated that "i want" is pritty poitless in here

and that title made me redo mine lol

Oh you wanted to go to a new virtual world, not inside my pants. Sorry, I misunderstood.

LOL

u just got attacked by Teddy


edit: sleepless night is bad for spelling...

To set the record straight, I have checked my Account and my VAT increase is 19% as is the current VAT/MwSt for Germany not 17.5% as in the UK.

It seems that what ever country you reside in, VAT will be applied in accordance with that Countries VAT regulations.

Cool, now we can move the servers to wonderful Europe and have gambling, but pay VAT on it

What I object most to is that there was no warning.... my monthly tier has gone up from $125 to $146.88.. which starts to add up. But what about all the poor sods with much higher tiers?

Glad I'm paid up for mainentance on my island for another 8 months already....

Duplicate: Locks