Taxes, Stipends and Economic Woes - condensed version

Hi all,

There are about 5 threads running right now related to economic problems. The short answer to all of them should be here, please let me know if I missed any:

People with land in the themed communities on the sims that are not connected to the mainland: You will have the tax refunded, hopefully by the end of today. Please watch your accounts. In most cases, we will be rounding up to account for any other errors.

Stipends - most of our investigation have shown that the stipends have been correct. We have had some minor issues related to crashes, but many people have had refunds given as they notified us of the errors. Please continue to do so.

Incorrect tax day - well, it ran as planned, and according to our accounting, it was accurate. We are working to find a better solution to tax day since it is causing more headaches than it should be.
(We just had a big meeting about it, when we find a good solution, we'll let you know.)

Why have taxes in the first place? That thread was beaten to death a while ago (anyone care to find it? Mac Beach posted a great answer to this question...) but in short - taxes eloquently solve two problems. They force people to choose which objects are important enough for them to have in the world, and solve the "limited system resources" problem. As another very recent film put it.... the problem is choice.

OK, need to get back to work, lots of refunds to determine. Thanks everyone for keeping us on our toes.

-P

Hi all,

The tax adjustments have been made. People who were errently taxed, should now have a refund in their accounts.

Have fun,

Linden Lab and the tax board.

(p.s. ahhh, if only it were this easy in real life....)

I'd like discussion regarding one flat tax for every single object, no matter what it's use, value to the world, and so forth.

For example...I make a chair, it's five objects. Another builds a chair, it's two objects. Say they are the same price, but the 5 object one was harder to build and is aesthetically more pleasing...nice textures, quality work. It's a better crafted chair. Which will people buy?

They will buy the 2 object one, because it is cheaper to rez, and costs less in taxes. I know it's true because this recently happened to me. Somebody asked me to reduce prims on a popular object I sell because they wanted more than one of them. The item is cheap, a good value. But the taxes and rez cost are too high. So I had to make a lower quality version of the product, for the same exact price. In fact, I offered to give the original away and was told it'd be better to pay for the lower quality one because in the end the buyer saves money...a signficant amount. My efforts and skill become the less relevant factor. Taxes on the item drive the request. Giving a gift of detailed work is actually a burden.

This appears to be a contradiction that throttles the art and potential of SL, and in all my ravings, that is my chief concern.

Thank you very, very much for the unstitched tax refund.

Long live Zoli.

Tcoz.

*shakes head*

I also disagree with flat tax. then we have a whole lot of lights and object floating in the air. And giant floating castles that cost the same as a house on the ground... Its in place, once again to manage resources.