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

[Persephone Emerald]

On 3/1/2022 at 1:01 PM, Persephone Emerald said:

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.

I changed my mind. I'm going to be releasing 512 square meters of land, so I'll only need 2 premium accounts. I expect many others who pay for land in SL will also be downsizing.

Good Job,  Linden Lab!  You're going to have even more empty mainland and even fewer linden dollar purchases in the coming year.

Edited March 2, 2022 by Persephone Emerald

[Crim Mip]

On 2/28/2022 at 7:13 PM, 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 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?

 

I believe California's state tax is 7.25% which is all LL is likely going to collect.

[Talon Brown]

Quite frankly I'd be willing to deal with the sales tax had they not already increased the annual premium sub from $75 to $99 but they did and this is only adding insult to injury.  I'll be cashing out and going basic when my sub comes up for renewal in a few months.

[Lindal Kidd]

14 hours ago, Crim Mip said:

I believe California's state tax is 7.25% which is all LL is likely going to collect.

Sales tax is based on the buyer's state, not the seller's.

[Lindal Kidd]

Here's something from the Tax Foundation:

• In 2019, Americans will pay $3.4 trillion in federal taxes and $1.8 trillion in state and local taxes, for a total bill of over $5.2 trillion, or 29 percent of the nation’s income.

• Americans will collectively spend more on taxes in 2019 than they will on food, clothing, and housing combined.

...and the USA is not the country that has the highest tax burden!

Why was it that we had that revolution, again?

[Prokofy Neva]

On 2/28/2022 at 8:13 PM, 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 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?

 

Yes, of course, I'm getting rid of some premium accounts and land, trying to consolidate where I can. It might only save $40 or whatever, but ever little bit helps in SL.

[Crim Mip]

6 hours ago, Lindal Kidd said:

Sales tax is based on the buyer's state, not the seller's.

The one I was responding to seemed to indicate they were in CA unless I missread it, but yes you are correct.

[Marianne Little]

7 hours ago, Lindal Kidd said:

Here's something from the Tax Foundation:

• In 2019, Americans will pay $3.4 trillion in federal taxes and $1.8 trillion in state and local taxes, for a total bill of over $5.2 trillion, or 29 percent of the nation’s income.

• Americans will collectively spend more on taxes in 2019 than they will on food, clothing, and housing combined.

...and the USA is not the country that has the highest tax burden!

Why was it that we had that revolution, again?

Yep yep and 25% VAT on top. But I have social security when my health breaks down. The difference between poor and rich are increasing here as well, and low income families started to say in December that they could not have on heating in all the rooms or buy the same things for Christmas because of the high energy price. So the State rakes in money, but it does not feel like living in Utopia. At least we are not the worst country.

So you can see why I stopped to pay tier and sold my Mainland.

[SarahKB7 Koskinen]

Was curious about the concept of "states" because I'm from a place that doesn't have any, other than the overall Sovereign State itself.  So I was surprised to learn that of all the planet's 197-ish countries, only 14 of them have "states" within them. They are:

1. Australia
2. Austria
3. Brazil
4. Germany
5. India
6. Malaysia
7. Mexico
8. Micronesia
9. Myanmar
10. New Zealand
11. Nigeria
12. Palau
13. South Sudan
14. United States

 

Edited March 4, 2022 by SarahKB7 Koskinen

[Qie Niangao]

This may affect my use of SL, both premium subscriptions and tier. It remains to be seen, however, whether they'll charge me, and if so, for what state, inasmuch as I officially live in Canada, but use US accounts for SL. (It's complicated. My income and business expenses are almost all US-based, so I eat currency exchange fees into Canada. The Lab—presumably Tilia at this point—simply won't allow a "Canadian" SL account to pay in US dollars, but if I paid them in Canadian dollars I'd have to eat those exchange fees in both directions.)

God knows US citizens living abroad do not save on taxes. Quite the opposite.

So if they apply sales tax from some arbitrary state to my payments, I'll have to weigh whether I want to "move" to a Canadian account and live with the crazy double currency exchange. If that happens, then yeah, a whole lot of railway land will be up for sale all at once.

[Sid Nagy]

6 hours ago, SarahKB7 Koskinen said:

Was curious about the concept of "states" because I'm from a place that doesn't have any, other than the overall Sovereign State itself.  So I was surprised to learn that of all the planet's 197-ish countries, only 14 of them have "states" within them. They are:

1. Australia
2. Austria
3. Brazil
4. Germany
5. India
6. Malaysia
7. Mexico
8. Micronesia
9. Myanmar
10. New Zealand
11. Nigeria
12. Palau
13. South Sudan
14. United States

 

I think the United Kingdom should be on that list as well.

[Sid Nagy]

I had a few days to think this situation over:

My premium will renew somewhere in April.
If LL starts to charge us Europeans even more with taxes, I will most likely downgrade before renewal date.
And I might even call it a day all together, when I have used all my accumulated L$ on private land tier.

These price raises are not because of changing laws (that was years ago) but because of maximizing profits.
They haven't done anything in years that really matters to improve my experience. Not even the simplest things like fixing essentials that are broken.

I will not play the role of cash cow over and over again for LL's new investors.
I've been squeezed out enough by now, thank you.

Edited March 4, 2022 by Sid Nagy

[SarahKB7 Koskinen]

2 hours ago, Sid Nagy said:

I think the United Kingdom should be on that list as well.

The UK can't be in that list because the UK isn't actually a country. Instead the UK is a political union of four non-sovereign nations in one overall UK "sovereign state" with a single united UK Parliament.

Edited March 4, 2022 by SarahKB7 Koskinen

[Sid Nagy]

Why could Downing Street decide that all states would leave the EU, while the majority of Scots were against it?
Why was there a referendum years ago to get Scotland independent?
Why do they compete as one country in the Olympics?
They were as one nation member of the EU.
They are one country already with several states, IMHO.

Edited March 4, 2022 by Sid Nagy

[SarahKB7 Koskinen]

6 minutes ago, Sid Nagy said:

Why could Downing Street decide that all states would leave the EU, while the majority of Scots were against it?
They are one country already IMHO.

Because the whole UK had a joint EU referendum as the UK is the sovereign state. There were no seperate England, Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales EU referenda as only the Westminster-based UK Parliament is sovereign.

Edited March 4, 2022 by SarahKB7 Koskinen

[Sid Nagy]

"The UK is the sovereign state."
Rest my case, whatever twisted theories the Brits may have about it.
(Probably to have more national teams with football )

[SarahKB7 Koskinen]

2 hours ago, Sid Nagy said:

Why do they compete as one country in the Olympics?
They were as one nation member of the EU.
They are one country already with several states, IMHO.

The UK  has never competed in the Olympics as the UK. A team called Great Britain does instead, which allows Northern Ireland citizens to choose to compete for either Team GB or the Republic of Ireland (Eiré). The Great Britain team is intentionally named after the geographic island name of Great Britain, as England, Wales and Scotland all share this same island of Great Britain.  Northern Ireland is located on an island named Ireland, which is also shared with Eiré (the Republic of Ireland). 

The UK was a member of the EU because the sovereign UK Parliament made the application to join it in 1973. We joined as one United Kingdom and left it in 2020 as one United Kingdom after a whole UK referendum.

England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland are allowed to have seperate football teams in FIFA World Cup competitions because they were the first nations in the world to have Football Associations which were formed after 1863, decades before FIFA's formation in 1904. The four UK nations also have a 25% share each (FIFA has the other 50%) in the rules of association football.  This UK-FIFA football rules partnership is called IFAB, which controls the RULES of football.  FIFA only controls the competitions it holds. England's football association is still officially called "The Football Association" because it was the first national association in the world.

 

Edited March 4, 2022 by SarahKB7 Koskinen

[Sid Nagy]

Why doesn't has England it's own parliament then?
I'm totally confused now.

Edit to add: But as long as the Britons understand it, I'm fine with it 
 

Edited March 4, 2022 by Sid Nagy

[SarahKB7 Koskinen]

1 hour ago, Sid Nagy said:

Why doesn't has England it's own parliament then?
I'm totally confused now.
 

England has not had a sovereign parliament of its own since the year 1707, when the parliaments of England & Wales and Scotland were unified by a political union and then created a single sovereign parliament to form the parliament of Great Britain. A united Ireland was added in 1801 which formed the UK Parliament.

The sovereign parliament of the UK is based in London, England, as England is the largest nation of the four and has the largest population and economy. As London is the capital of England, it also doubles as the capital of the UK too.

Edited March 4, 2022 by SarahKB7 Koskinen

[Istelathis]

I only have this one premium account, and unless the economy plummets I plan on keeping it.  For me the 1024 plot is fine for a home in SL, and when I want to create larger worlds I do so either in a minecraft clone, RIFT (sadly a neglected MMO but I still like their housing), or opensim which I use most.  I love SL, but I am also cheap 😜  I think $99 a year even with taxes is easier to justify as I probably spend two to three hundred active hours a year in SL.  Combine the land with the linden so I can go shopping, and I am happy with it.

I wouldn't spend much more than that though, once it starts hitting the $125 mark I am likely to stop paying for premium.  I have a lot of things I enjoy besides SL, and they also cost money 😓  

Edited March 4, 2022 by Istelathis
Active hours, a lot of the time is spent AFK while browsing the Internet

[LittleMe Jewell]

2 hours ago, Sid Nagy said:

My premium will renew somewhere in April.
If LL starts to charge us Europeans even more with taxes, I will most likely downgrade before renewal date.
And I might even call it a day all together, when I have used all my accumulated L$ on private land tier.

The new 'sales tax' thing is only a US thing.  We will be charged based on where in the US we live because our address, as the buyer, is what dictates the amount of sales tax, if any.  This is totally about complying with the US Sales Tax laws across the country and will not apply to anyone with an address outside of the US.

 

Colorado does tax digital goods, but only some digital goods, as I understand it. Based on the wording, I likely will have to pay the tax for charges related to any land that I own.  I believe that will also apply to tier donated to a group.  The question is whether or not the sales tax will apply to my Premium membership fee.  I've submitted a question to my state taxing authority on that.

[Sid Nagy]

I'll wait and see until the end of the month when the tax amounts should show up on their website.
See first, then believe, is my take in this.
I still have about 2 weeks to decide what to do then.

 

Edited March 4, 2022 by Sid Nagy

[Marigold Devin]

The tax I was already paying when a premium member irked me, but I was reconsidering becoming premium again recently, until our prime minister decided to take the cap off what the utilities companies could charge and now my (our) electricity and gas bills are going up by 54%! So I shall just have to continue using Second Life the way I do, as a bit of an interloper, putting into the economy only via little windfalls I make in real life that never make it into my household budget and never will. 

[LittleMe Jewell]

37 minutes ago, Sid Nagy said:

I'll wait and see until the end of the month when the tax amounts should show up on their website.
See first, then believe, is my take in this.
I still have about 2 weeks to decide what to do then.

 

I went back and re-read the blog post -- definitely only for folks living in the US:

"As of March 31, 2022 we will begin charging sales tax in the U.S."

[Paul Hexem]

It might, but now that I know LL gives out 30 day relief to people under hardship, maybe I'll ask for some of that if it gets too expensive, to make up for when I kept paying through the pandemic.