US Residents.. will the new SL sales tax effect your Premium Purchases?

[Teresa Firelight]

I pay for a region that is 189 a month and 2 horizons parcels at $13 a month.. which is 202 .. at roughly 10% Calif tax, that will be over $20 USD a month extra charges. I am stretched to the limit wiht my current alts/tiers. I cant afford the 10% increase and will have no choice but to cut back. Since annual premiums cost 8.25 per month, that means I have to reduce by 3 premium alts just to break even, not counting the tax on the other alts.

Plus there is the annoyance factor.. being annoyed at tax may make me want to cut back my premium alts even more as they expire...

Will anyone else be effected by this?

 

[yestothis]

Before all the euros say “but I pay 20% VAT!” - we don’t care. 
 

I would have preferred they raised prices across the board to cover these taxes rather than state by state. Some states have no sales tax, so now a significant saving, especially if they own a region or regions. This sales tax just made the region rental market unfair again, similar to grandfather vs non-grandfather prices. I expect private estates to raise their prices.

what I am wondering is how come new premiums aren’t taxed, but you’re loyal premium subscribers are? Grandfather me into the no-sales tax. Thanks! 

 

[Elena Blossom]

5 hours ago, yestothis said:

Before all the euros say “but I pay 20% VAT!” - we don’t care. 

 

oh WoW, that was really nice of you... Lovely human approach, thank you for respecting other countries and understanding there are more people in the world apart from you

Btw, we pay beween 20-24% VAT

Edited March 1, 2022 by Elena Core
Right figures

[Alwin Alcott]

5 hours ago, yestothis said:

Before all the euros say “but I pay 20% VAT!” - we don’t care. 

 

i do however remember what nearly all US said when we got our tax rates raised in sl years ago ... so i can honestly say  "we do not care at all" good luck with it.

[Wulfie Reanimator]

2 hours ago, Alwin Alcott said:

i do however remember what nearly all US said when we got our tax rates raised in sl years ago ... so i can honestly say  "we do not care at all" good luck with it.

"First they came for the Europeans, and I did not speak out -- because I was not European..."

[Claireschen Hesten]

10 hours ago, yestothis said:

Before all the euros say “but I pay 20% VAT!” - we don’t care. 

In the UK at least VAT isn't charged on annual premium membership

[Sylvia Tamalyn]

12 hours ago, yestothis said:

Before all the euros say “but I pay 20% VAT!” - we don’t care. 

 

I don't know who this "we" is you speak of, but you and your imaginary friends seem to be a bit...

 

[Evangeline Ling]

 

[Elena Blossom]

3 hours ago, Claireschen Hesten said:

In the UK at least VAT isn't charged on annual premium membership

Same here in Spain, there is no VAT added in that one, that is why I chose the annual payment; otherwise, I'd be paying 21% extra each quarter or month, a total of 36€ /13€

Edited March 1, 2022 by Elena Core

[Lindal Kidd]

Almost everyone in the world is overtaxed these days. Back a couple of hundred years, the North American colonies of England went to war because they resented being overtaxed, at a total tax rate of about 1%. Astonishing.

We could take a page from the colonists' book and hold some revolutions...but I have to admit, a good part of all that taxation does provide needed services, infrastructure, and protections. Instead of running for the rifles, just write your representatives and let them know that unless they lift some of the tax burden (however much that might be where you live), you plan to give them the boot and elect someone who will.

[Anna Salyx]

Well, I think more accurately the dispute between The Children Colonies and The Parent England was less about being overtaxed (which they might have well been don't get me wrong) and more about not having a place at the table (or a more representational place) that the taxes should have bought.  So long as I'm getting a proper benefit from my taxation I'm not overly miffed or annoyed about it. NO, just the right amount of miffed and annoyed. 

[yestothis]

No tax for annual premium? Could a linden confirm this for US too? 

[Alwin Alcott]

20 minutes ago, yestothis said:

No tax for annual premium? Could a linden confirm this for US too? 

: no VAT .. might be different than US sales taxes. ask your government if it is.

[Persephone Emerald]

17 hours ago, Teresa Firelight said:

I pay for a region that is 189 a month and 2 horizons parcels at $13 a month.. which is 202 .. at roughly 10% Calif tax, that will be over $20 USD a month extra charges. I am stretched to the limit with my current alts/tiers. I cant afford the 10% increase and will have no choice but to cut back. Since annual premiums cost 8.25 per month, that means I have to reduce by 3 premium alts just to break even, not counting the tax on the other alts.

Plus there is the annoyance factor.. being annoyed at tax may make me want to cut back my premium alts even more as they expire...

Will anyone else be effected by this?

 

You need to stop paying monthly for your accounts!

If a person pays monthly for a Premium account with a 7.25 % California state sales tax (not including local taxes), that's $13.86/ month or $154.31 annually.

If they pay quarterly for a Premium account, that's $ 35.36/ quarter or $141.44 annually.

If they pay annually now, before this sales tax goes into effect, they would only pay $99 annually.

 

You should also consider having multiple annual Premium accounts, with their pay date spaced out so you won't pay for all of them at the same time. I'm not sure at what point it becomes cheaper to pay for monthly tier than to have multiple premium accounts, but I think it's after 4 Premium accounts. Each Premium account gets $L 300/ week, which works out to roughly (300/ 250) $1.20/ week. Multiplied by 52 weeks/ year = $62.40 worth of linden dollars/ account. Since Linden Lab will likely start adding state sales tax onto linden dollar purchases too, it's going to much cheaper to get your lindens as a stipend rather than as separate buys throughout the coming year.

Four Premium accounts all pooling their tier into one land group would let you have 4496 square meters of mainland: (4 x 1024 + (4 x 10% of 1024) - fractions of 16 square meter parcels). This is over 1/16 of a region. You would still have to pay monthly tier for any square meters over this amount.  Four premium accounts would also give you $ 249.60 worth of stipend. Subtract this pooled stipend from your 4 annual premium payments, and you'd be paying, $146.40 / year for these 4 accounts and the land that goes with them.

Edited March 1, 2022 by Persephone Emerald

[Solar Legion]

Answer to thread title: No.

[yestothis]

Remember when they hiked the premium price from $76 to $99? They let us pay another year in advance. Can we have that same deal right now? I’ll happily park my money into second life to save a couple of dollars. 

[Paul Hexem]

3 hours ago, Lindal Kidd said:

Almost everyone in the world is overtaxed these days. Back a couple of hundred years, the North American colonies of England went to war because they resented being overtaxed, at a total tax rate of about 1%. Astonishing.

We could take a page from the colonists' book and hold some revolutions...but I have to admit, a good part of all that taxation does provide needed services, infrastructure, and protections. Instead of running for the rifles, just write your representatives and let them know that unless they lift some of the tax burden (however much that might be where you live), you plan to give them the boot and elect someone who will.

I suspect they'd pay more attention to the rifles, though.

[Persephone Emerald]

I recently started paying $ 4 /month for land that had previously been donated into my land group by a group member. With this current price hike coming, I'm now considering making my guy alt my 3rd Premium account paid annually, then buying some neighboring land to add to what I have now. When his Premium membership comes due again, I'll then likely sell off or abandon what would be 1/3 of my land. That's a hard thing to do, but easier than paying $L 297 or more / year rather than $ 198 or more / year. I'm not going to be purchasing any linden dollars, given all the fees and taxes being added to that exchange, so I might as well stock up on my stipend money over this next year.

[Kimmi Zehetbauer]

Surprised this hadn't been done sooner.  They states have their hands out and seem to be taxing more things.  I'm waiting for the CRA (Canada Revenue Agency) to put there hands out for the collection of the GST.

[Ceka Cianci]

18 hours ago, yestothis said:

Remember when they hiked the premium price from $76 to $99? They let us pay another year in advance. Can we have that same deal right now? I’ll happily park my money into second life to save a couple of dollars. 

You can get the 99.00 without tax if you do it before the tax goes into action.. I doubt they will do the 76.00 again..

 

To answer the thread, No it's not gonna change how I spend in here.. I've already cut back a lot just because I don't really need too much more stuff as it is.. hehehe

 

Edited March 2, 2022 by Ceka Cianci

[NardweBones]

If the move to the cloud was as beneficial as sought out to be then perhaps instead of LL changing pricing if they change Tiers in regards to how much they may be (Hopefully are) saving after the move to the cloud could be given back to the users.

So basically IF possible change up Land Impact Limits, Region Size per Tier, etc. (Essentially helping cover those who need to reduce their tier while still maintaining as similar land rights as possible)

I have no idea how much LL if any has been saved after moving to AWS, and when Premium Plus comes out I suspect we will see some changes to how Premium is setup/price etc...

I do not think they will necessarily change the prices but may change what we get for each tier; maybe you'll get lucky and be able to lower your tier without loosing as much land in the near future? *hopes

 

Edit: LL does NOT save any substantial amount of money in the migration to the cloud, but does possible have more access to better Architecture/features moving forward.* thanks for clarifying LittleMe Jewell

Edited March 2, 2022 by NardweBones

[Annie Nova]

15 minutes ago, NardweBones said:

and when Premium Plus comes out

Soon..........ish.......................

[Malin Sabra]

Oh yay more taxes. Can't wait!!

 

[Fay Starlight]

I will make my account longer term going forward.

Edited March 2, 2022 by Fay Starlight

[LittleMe Jewell]

4 hours ago, NardweBones said:

If the move to the cloud was as beneficial as sought out to be then perhaps instead of LL changing pricing if they change Tiers in regards to how much they may be (Hopefully are) saving after the move to the cloud could be given back to the users.

So basically IF possible change up Land Impact Limits, Region Size per Tier, etc. (Essentially helping cover those who need to reduce their tier while still maintaining as similar land rights as possible)

I have no idea how much LL if any has been saved after moving to AWS, and when Premium Plus comes out I suspect we will see some changes to how Premium is setup/price etc...

I do not think they will necessarily change the prices but may change what we get for each tier; maybe you'll get lucky and be able to lower your tier without loosing as much land in the near future? *hopes

It has been noted, time and again, by Oz himself before he left (and others), that LL is not saving any money with the move to the cloud.  The cloud simply allows them to expand without having to have physical space for new servers and might give them some performance advantages down the road.

Edited March 2, 2022 by LittleMe Jewell