KanryDrago

Hmm is this a case of if you don't meet a strange character it probably means you are the strange character everyone else talks about?

Shrugs my landlord is good and as he knows if I am late with the rent I will catch up never forecloses on my land, was off for 5 months once. Admittedly I said I am taking a break but will be back. Came back all my stuff was still there

I merely wondered as I think I have come across about 3 in the last 3 years

Thanks for confirming the correct answer, it seems I was wrong about the sub being vat on top it seems the labs must be swallowing it

Regardless of anything if someone from the eu is subbing the eu will be getting their cut, my suspicion as vat is now mentioned on the subs page is that they were told they didnt have a choice not to charge Vat and its quietly been changed back for eu residents. Perhaps an eu resident with a premium account can confirm

found this on the offical wiki http://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/Linden_Lab_Official:Value_Added_Tax_(VAT)_Frequently_Asked_Questions#Who_is_charged_VAT.3F

under eu laws any digital service supplied has to be subject to tax, I paid vat on my wow sub when I had one, I pay vat on my Eve online sub. The labs are either paying the vat for you or they are breaking Eu law and will be prosecuted for it or they have since changed back to charging it

Also your bank charges a conversion fee to dollars but it does that with linden buying too

Country VAT Rate Austria 20.00 % Belgium 21.00 % Bulgaria 20.00 % Cyprus 19.00 % Czech Republic 21.00 % Denmark 25.00 % Estonia 20.00 % Finland 24.00 % France 20.00 % Germany 19.00 % Greece 24.00 % Hungary 27.00 % Ireland 23.00 % Italy 22.00 % Latvia 21.00 % Lithuania 21.00 % Luxembourg 17.00 % Malta 18.00 % Netherlands 21.00 % Poland 23.00 % Portugal 23.00 % Romania 19.00 % Slovakia 20.00 % Slovenia 22.00 % Spain 21.00 % Sweden 25.00 % United Kingdom 20.00 % In accordance with the sales tax regulations of European Union countries in which some of our Residents live, we must collect and remit Value Added Tax (VAT). Currently, only Residents who live in the European Union are charged VAT. The EU allows people and companies to register for VAT exemption, which we abide by.For more details, please refer to the VAT policy page on the Second Life website. Rates above are current as of August 24, 2009 its on the subs page

Wrong as usual Phil a 72$ annual premium costs some of us far more than 72$

Its got nothing at all to do with how pretty mainland is and prettying it up wouldn't change me mind in the least. If they ever do so I suspect it will have no actual net effect on the number of dwellers there as while some will move from estates to mainland, some will find they dont like these new neighbours and abandon mainland

Which is true but assumes you can afford the mattress up front, if you can't your choice is sleep on the floor for x months while you save up or go the credit route There is also one major flaw in the subs route for me even without the cost issue and that is it only works if you want to live on mainland

When I buy lindens there are no taxes added when I buy any game sub there is

Which was the point I was making to Penny. It only works if you can afford the up front cost of an annual subscription

And my response was to you claiming its always cheaper, now if you had said if you can afford the upfront cost of an annual sub then I might have been less inclined to say you were wrong though even there you are making false assumptions by asserting that the cost of an annual sub is 72$ and basing your calculations on how much it actually costs on that. There are other countries except the usa and some of them put surcharges and taxes on subscriptions which raise the cost of them

You are still ignoring the issue that to buy even one annual sub basically I have to save my hobby money for 2 months and basically not play sl in a way I enjoy. Then repeat twice more for the other 2 subs, then when all thats done I have to do the same over when it comes time to renewal so my sl would go Month 1 dont play sl Month 2 dont play sl buy sub 1 Month 3 dont play sl Month 4 dont play sl buy sub 2 Month 5 dont play sl Month 6 dont play sl buy sub 3 yay now I can buy land and finally put my house uo ..... Month 11 dont play sl so I can save to renew sub1 Month 12 dont play sl so I can renew sub1 months 7,8 and 9 would be great though

1) you neglected the point where I said to get to those prices you would have to buy 3 annual subs in one go at a cost of 216 dollars (260 dollars for me with taxes) so if I was to do it then I would have to pay monthly which would cost me 34 dollars a month with taxes with the stipend my monthly hobby budget would then allow me to buy 4000 lindens +900 stipend. Currently I buy 12500 lindens a month and pay 4000 in rent leaving me 8500 lindens to spend, basically your way reduces my spending power in game by almost half straight away and that is before factoring in that I would need to buy the plot of land. Yes for some people it can work out cheaper not for all people though 2) defaulting on that payment is a very real risk to me as it only takes an invoice going unpaid till late to mean I have to batten down the hatches and not spend luxury money to make sure all my rl bills have funds available until it comes in. Buying Lindens and renting allows me that control a subscription doesnt and yes it was my friends fault for not cancelling be laid off at the time gave her other things to worry about and it slipped her mind.

Do people use experiences grid wide or not? I have no idea just know on the rare occasions one pops up I automatically decline

That theory relies on the user having a spare 216$ lying around to pay premium for 3 account, I discount the stipend part of your argument as it would barely cover a night out dancing in tips but then I am not a miser and reward those that entertain me. It would not save me money just give me more lindens to spend each month as I wouldn't change my monthly hobby budget. What it would do however is put me at risk of getting my account locked by the labs if for unforseen circumstances there is no money in my account when they try and take their payment which as I noted recently happened to a friend of mine. Whereas the worst that happens renting of a landlord is they return my items (my current landlord being a good one when I was laid off just before christmas and I explained to him just said dont worry start paying rent again when you can)

Grins is that so

probably so, mine has stayed just the way I like it however for 2 years, neighbours have come and gone and always got on fine with them. A little give and take

Not all private estates are cheek to jowl in fact most I have seen have spare plots on.

I believe the issue is they tried to take x$ for the sub and tier and until she pays that they wont unlock the account let alone drop her to non premium

Whereas if you own it as a friend of mine did and happen to not have the funds when LL takes your premium they lock your account as has recently happened to a friend of mine who forgot to cancel her account when she got laid off and can no longer log in to SL.

Not sure how you work out land is cheaper on mainland just doing the sums here for my 4096 plot cost in lindens 4000 cost in us$ 15.94 for mainland I would need for the same size plot 7$ for premium + 22$ for the tier fee ( as even with the free 1024 and 10% extra I would still be above the 2048 lower tier) which if I can add up makes 29$ Also the upfront cost of buying the mainland in the first place. I am curious how you manage therefore to make the statement "And it's a cheaper alternative to a private estate regardless of how much land you want"