US Residents to begin paying Sales Tax

[LittleMe Jewell]

For anyone that is only paying for small amounts of tier, the increase will be in cents, not dollars.  However, for anyone paying for multiple regions, it could be a hefty increase.  

One thing that some will consider to be good from it:  It will help level the playing field a bit between landlords paying VAT and landlords in the US who haven't had any of those type fees before -- though there will still be a pretty large difference in the percentage.

[shireena1]

 

1 hour ago, Istelathis said:

 I must admit seeing premium rise from $72 to $99 and then having tax applied to it did not impress me in the least though. 

AGREED!  Non u.s resident have to pay 10% sales tax (or more) already, Which is a charge on top of the bill ( as in its extra , not included) but as others have said, it really hasn't affected what I do in SL. This would not be a reason for me to cancel the premium account, but others with multiple sims could find that charge enough to cut a sim or two off.

Edited February 28, 2022 by shireena1
added some more info

[Sid Nagy]

6 minutes ago, SarahKB7 Koskinen said:

Here in England, the displayed store price already includes the VAT as default, so there's no extra charge to pay at the point of transaction.  All store reciepts have a VAT registration number printed on them, so the customer may claim back the VAT from HMRC (Her Majesty's Revenue & Customs) should they need to for business tax reasons.

I like our VAT system. We all pay in and we all get something back In return, we all get free to access hospitals and no medical bills. Ever.

But with LL you pay the VAT for mainland tier  and premium on top of the shown prices. They are not included.

[Chic Aeon]

Now would be a LOVELY time to let citizens pay for Premium (or Premium Plus) with linden dollars.   Just saying.

 

I would happily pay with some of my linden dollar collection.  Not paying with US :D.  I can't be alone in this as I know a bunch of folks who quit when the linden to USD changes happened. 

 

[Cain Maven]

This is neither surprising nor unfair, as European users well know. It does, however, perhaps represent a step backwards for the efforts to reduce the role of land cost in the SL economy. Hopefully, the Lab will match this with mitigating steps; if not, we may see some real inflation in SL.

[Dragon Mommy]

1 hour ago, Solar Legion said:

... A business does not need to be doing poorly to no longer absorb the tax fees.

Exactly this. 

Most of my clients (ecommerce) have moved to passing that cost onto the customer. These are not small stores, many of them are in the upper hundreds of millions per year in profit. 

But it's incorrect to completely categorize this as just a company passing on the fees that they make more money. Freeing up extra funds can usually be allocated to another project, additionally it's actually a little more work for your accountant (or accounting software...) if you are rolling the tax into each transaction total. Far easier to just tack it on afterwards. 

Other countries are likely to, eventually, implement rules similar to the Wayfair case. If you're in the United States and shop online regularly then you've already seen the results of this case as part of the taxes that you face in stores based in a state other than your own. 

[Coffee Pancake]

I presume we have always being paying the sales tax and it's just been included.

Which really just makes this a price hike with fingering pointing.

[bigmoe Whitfield]

steam forums I read often and you should see the people losing their minds over sales tax, they would pay it on amazon, but not steam, steam should never charge sales taxes.   cracks me up with people at times,   here soon we are not going to be absorbing them either,  we've been in business since 1998 and we've taken care of our people, but we can less our load and hand off to the customer directly so that's happening here very soon.

 

edit: my company, I'm not connected in any way to LL.

Edited February 28, 2022 by bigmoe Whitfield

[Paul Hexem]

Ah yes. More fees and taxes. Because I'm already charged 6 of those just by waking up every day, what's another on the list?

[Mollymews]

i looked it up for the USA

only 5 states with zero sales tax: Alaska, Delaware, Montana, New Hampshire, Oregon

lowest non-zero at 4% is Alabama

highest at 7.5% is California

edit source: https://www.tax-rates.org/taxtables/sales-tax-by-state

 

Edited March 1, 2022 by Mollymews

[LittleMe Jewell]

2 minutes ago, Mollymews said:

i looked it up for the USA

only 5 states with zero sales tax: Alaska, Delaware, Montana, New Hampshire, Oregon

lowest non-zero at 4% is Alabama

highest at 7.5% is California

edit source: https://www.tax-rates.org/taxtables/sales-tax-by-state

 

Yes, but then you also have to add in any City and/or County taxes.  For my address, it will be 8.15%.

Edited March 1, 2022 by LittleMe Jewell

[Mollymews]

4 minutes ago, LittleMe Jewell said:

Yes, but then you also have to add in any City and/or County taxes.  For my address, it will be 8.15%.

yes you are right, that changes things quite a bit

https://www.tax-rates.org/taxtables/local-sales-taxes

for zero sales taxes then looks like only: Delaware, New Hampshire and Oregon

[Paulsian]

Without the taxes we pay to America, America would not have an average annual Department of Defense's discretionary budget of approximately $705.39 billion ($705,390,000,000) (Fiscal Year 2021).

1. American

Approx. of other countries (some questionable). 

2. China / 215 Billion

3. Saudi Arabia / 66.4 Billion

4. Russia / 66 Billion

5. The United Kingdom / 51 Billion

6. France / 51-55 Billion

7. India / 50 Billion

 8. Germany / 43.5 Billion

9. South Korea / 37 Billion

10. Japan / 27 Billion

[Silent Mistwalker]

No sales tax in my state so I won't be paying it.

[Paulsian]

My state you get taxed to work and then taxed to shop and taxed to fuel to go to work and taxed to have heat and power and internet and water. Inflation is so bad a dinner for 3 at Mcdonalds McDoubled. 45 bucks bet tax was crazy on that didn't look; and they were shady with fries & cold.. I can't stand fast food anymore. (I feel better now had to get that off chest). I would usually get me and my dog some mcdoubles hamburgers 6 for like 7 bucks. Now it's 27 bucks. I was like really... No ty.. At least the government is getting more taxes.. 

[Paul Hexem]

55 minutes ago, Paulsian said:

My state you get taxed to work and then taxed to shop and taxed to fuel to go to work and taxed to have heat and power and internet and water. Inflation is so bad a dinner for 3 at Mcdonalds McDoubled. 45 bucks bet tax was crazy on that didn't look; and they were shady with fries & cold.. I can't stand fast food anymore. (I feel better now had to get that off chest). I would usually get me and my dog some mcdoubles hamburgers 6 for like 7 bucks. Now it's 27 bucks. I was like really... No ty.. At least the government is getting more taxes.. 

Plus excise taxes, speciality taxes, and license fees. 

[Sylvia Tamalyn]

I pay taxes on everything else, so this is no big deal to me. It was nice to have it covered for us here as long as it was.

[Annalise Evergarden]

Depending on how much of a hike in price it'll be for premium(for me) will depend on if I stay paying for it, Right now it's one of two things that I pay for just for myself and I have a budget on that.

Edited March 1, 2022 by Mortified Wanderer

[Setsuki Takeda]

5 hours ago, Prokofy Neva said:

Every jurisdiction is different, so it will go by the address of your credit card.

Time to stop in Oregon for a few weeks and apply for a card XD

[WereBeast Alpha]

My question is I rent a homestead and pay overall 100 USD per month on it. But its in lindens and the land is owned by a real estate company on second life. Does this go towards the tax even though I pay in $L (Lindens)

My state has a 6.5% sales tax so would that effect the cost as well of linden or are rentals safe from this issue?

[bigmoe Whitfield]

1 hour ago, Mortified Wanderer said:

Depending on how much of a hike in price it'll be for premium(for me) will depend on if I stay paying for it, Right now it's one of two things that I pay for just for myself and I have a budget on that.

Make sure you use the default text colour,  some of us are on the dark theme and this is very hard to read

[Maximillon Lefavre]

This should be really interesting since several states don't tax the sale of virtual/digital goods and only charge sales tax on physical copies of a product. Any items you buy in SL would be considered digital goods.

[Maximillon Lefavre]

3 hours ago, Silent Mistwalker said:

No sales tax in my state so I won't be paying it.

Hopefully you don't but I wouldn't trust LL to implement this properly.

[Drake1 Nightfire]

I am a bit confused.. Will this apply to MP purchases made with L$? I cant see how as it states in the ToS

"Except as set forth above or in any Additional Terms, purchases of Linden Content (including but not limited to Usage Subscriptions, Virtual Tender, and/or other Virtual Goods and Services) are final, non-refundable, have no monetary value (i.e. are not a cash account or equivalent) "

How do you charge sales tax on something with no monetary value? Buying L$ as well should not incur a sales tax as L$ have no monetary value as well. 

[Mollymews]

41 minutes ago, xxVi3perxx said:

My question is I rent a homestead and pay overall 100 USD per month on it. But its in lindens and the land is owned by a real estate company on second life. Does this go towards the tax even though I pay in $L (Lindens)

at this time there is no tax payable on L$ transactions. The US Treasury (IRS) has not made any determination about in-game transactions. If Linden ever do start charging tax on in-game (L$) transactions it will be because of a change to US Treasury regulations

your estate owner tho will be liable for any tax payable by them, when Linden charge the estate owner the monthly tier