Taxes, taxes, taxes…
Recently in the EU, apparently EU citizens have had the pleasure of getting the addendum of the VAT tax added on to the following:
- Premium account registration
- Purchases from the Land Store
- Land use fees (tier)
- Private Region fees
- Land auctions
Sales tax. Alas, that’s a necessary but really ugly situation as noted by Nobody Fugazi. This has sparked some outrage from EU residents due to the fact that there was no warning and the bomb sort of dropped on them since Linden apparently had been absorbing the VAT tax the whole time before.But one thing bugs me as a US citizen. This comment in particular by Gomez Bracken:
Without wishing to start a flame on the subject, can you tell us EU customers why we are still paying the same base (ex-vat) price as US residents? I’m assuming that now you are charging us VAT, you should not be charging us state of claifornia sales taxes (7.25%) also? As it stands, we are being charged VAT on the ex-vat price AND us state tax…
Wait one second… we’re paying California state sales tax!?!?!! Since I don’t pay for land and such, I don’t know about this so I bring it to the readers or other VTOR authors that do. Are you getting taxed for Cali tax? If so, then there’s something seriously wrong with the way Linden is doing the transaction costs. If I’m not mistaken, US sales code says that you must pay sales tax in the state where the buyer is, not the seller. Thus, if they even charge sales tax, they can only charge California state tax to California state residents. If they wish to charge the rest of the states while not operating in those states, then I’d want to see the Linden books to make sure that Uncle Sam got his fair share and it didn’t just disappear. The fact is that, there’s something really realy hokey going on if everyone is charge Cali tax if you don’t reside there. While not a tax professional, I have to say that it’s totally wrong and would probably flag an immediate audit. Just my own opinion if Gomez is right on the whole US state tax thing.
Anyone have any ideas on this? Or can fill in some blanks?
September 29th, 2007 • 
Darius Sartre • 
comment | September 29, 2007 at 04:37 | individual comment-link
I’ve never been charged a California sales tax, at least that I can see. Just doublechecked history. Renewal for paid accounts happens in January and February. I’ll have to see if sales tax is charged then in those cases.
comment | September 29, 2007 at 06:21 | individual comment-link
Well, another thing being looked into is the fact that the VAT was not noted as a part of the price, and allegedly EU pricing laws state that the prices assume VAT inclusive unless stated otherwise… so that could be a spanner (wrench) in the works, too.