State Legislature Attempts to Tax All Digital Downloads
- Thread starter Greg Tito
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Yeah, video games, movies, music etc, all luxuries, why on earth shouldn't you pay tax?
Books is a tricky one, I believe books are VAT free in the UK, so if they're going to pin tax on e-books, that's obviously wrong and unfair (and therefore almost guaranteed to happen).
Yeah, we're paying 20% on almost everything we buy, but yeah, because Britain is a communist state, we've got that healthcare thing which doesn't plunge us into a lifetime of debt for just being unlucky. For now anyway, our current government's doing all they can to sell it off, as privatisation has done SO much good for our rail network, phone companies, and energy suppliers, I can't see why anyone would be against it.
Think back to when Amazon deleted ebooks from people's Kindles after purchase.
That just got even more complicated if they've taken tax money and then stolen back the item sold, while keeping the tax money.
I'd imagine it's another big thing to think about before any digital distributor decides to try pulling a dick move.
If Steam withdrew access to my games, and they had been taxed, I'd wonder where I stood in terms of having paid for them and no longer having them.
I'm just thinking it'd make any dodgy moves so much more complex that they'd maybe not be worth pulling off.
Books is a tricky one, I believe books are VAT free in the UK, so if they're going to pin tax on e-books, that's obviously wrong and unfair (and therefore almost guaranteed to happen).
Yeah, we're paying 20% on almost everything we buy, but yeah, because Britain is a communist state, we've got that healthcare thing which doesn't plunge us into a lifetime of debt for just being unlucky. For now anyway, our current government's doing all they can to sell it off, as privatisation has done SO much good for our rail network, phone companies, and energy suppliers, I can't see why anyone would be against it.
I'm suddenly even more in favour of this now.Aprilgold said:
Think back to when Amazon deleted ebooks from people's Kindles after purchase.
That just got even more complicated if they've taken tax money and then stolen back the item sold, while keeping the tax money.
I'd imagine it's another big thing to think about before any digital distributor decides to try pulling a dick move.
If Steam withdrew access to my games, and they had been taxed, I'd wonder where I stood in terms of having paid for them and no longer having them.
I'm just thinking it'd make any dodgy moves so much more complex that they'd maybe not be worth pulling off.
Umm... I don't know if its the same there but in Canada I already pay 13% on the points card for microsoft. I don't think there is anything wrong with it unless they want to double dip and charge it on the transaction as well.
As for digital distribution services, it will become tricky because Steam isn't based in that state so collecting taxes will become a weird issue. You will see transfer of funds between friends in different states so that one will buy and gift a game over steam without having to pay the taxes. A mess indeed.
As for digital distribution services, it will become tricky because Steam isn't based in that state so collecting taxes will become a weird issue. You will see transfer of funds between friends in different states so that one will buy and gift a game over steam without having to pay the taxes. A mess indeed.
I'm not too miffed about this particular tax, but I do have a problem with the way we go about taxation in general.
Can't speak for Europe, but as far as the US is concerned, the objective of all government officials in any office is to come up with ways to tax us that slip under your noses. Its a constant game of taxing something here and something there, and the end result is a PROHIBITIVELY complex system of taxation that burns tons of money simply collecting and figuring it out. (Oh, and the ability for the government then to do tax exemption shenanigans and having the whole corrupt government thing).
Go look up Fairtax if you'd like to see how taxes -should- work.
Can't speak for Europe, but as far as the US is concerned, the objective of all government officials in any office is to come up with ways to tax us that slip under your noses. Its a constant game of taxing something here and something there, and the end result is a PROHIBITIVELY complex system of taxation that burns tons of money simply collecting and figuring it out. (Oh, and the ability for the government then to do tax exemption shenanigans and having the whole corrupt government thing).
Go look up Fairtax if you'd like to see how taxes -should- work.
I actually don't see the big deal here. There are actually much worse ways a state could go, and frankly this is one time gamers need to chip in some responsibility for the whole fight to be recognized. It would be nice what that portion of the tax might end up earmarked for, if something specific. If it helps infrastructure, public works, or education, then maybe the politicos will end up with more friends on the subject.
It's not like they are going to be the ones paying the tax. Any business taxes get passed down to the consumer. If the ECA don't like it, they can always move north to New Hampshire.Bob_F_It said:
That you don't have to worry about. It is just those in Connecticut who would get charged the tax. I imagine they determine it by the user's IP address. So, if someone is sitting in CT but is online through a WiFi feed from New York, they won't have to worry about the address. However, the reverse can end up costing a non-present person a bit, too.SpAc3man said:
That is just one thought. Most likely, since most sales require the person's home address to be included, or at least their zip code, that will get them flagged for paying the extra tax if that address sits inside Connecticut. One could give a false location to dodge the tax, but then if a hiccup in the transaction occurs, the seller will refer to the person's included info to help correct the mistake. If the address turns out to be bogus, that will probably cancel the sale, if not cause other concerns for the customer.
Im all for it but the Constitution wont alow itmattttherman3 said:
its strict on what the federal gov can tax and for what reasons
basically Sales tax is state level only
and Tariffs are Federal level only
OT: Dont see a problem with this if there applying it to all digital download
if they can only apply this to ones with there HQ in state there just gonna shoot themselves in the foot
I would have no issue with taxes if they were spent properly.
It's the fact that so much money is wasted by terribly stupid people that I find myself generally resenting taxation.
But a popularly elected body is only as bad as the people who vote for it. So smarter people should step up, I'm hard pressed to believe short sighted people are the actual majority.
It's the fact that so much money is wasted by terribly stupid people that I find myself generally resenting taxation.
But a popularly elected body is only as bad as the people who vote for it. So smarter people should step up, I'm hard pressed to believe short sighted people are the actual majority.
Are you more in favor of what I said or of the actual bill. I'm just confused.SenseOfTumour said:
As far as I know, tax is added onto a bill, not taking a bit of who your buying from's profits. It wouldn't stop Steam or Amazon from removing things on their online component that people already bought.
If we were to do this on a digital-distribution platform, we would need some laws that cover customer rights on a platform like Steam. Can they revoke our games that we bought at anytime, or can we keep them forever? Can I later trade in a game if its not fit-for-purpose or forced to stick it out?
This bill isn't as simple as just throwing taxes onto Steam, and if it were, we would have some serious issues going on.
Pfft. Whiner.
I've been paying taxes on products from Amazon, Microsoft, Nintendo and Steam for as long they've been selling things online. And between them they account for about 90% of my online purchases.
The laws may be a bit fuzzy when someone here in Washington is selling something to someone back east in Connecticut or wherever, but when they're selling it to someone here in Washington it's always been quite clear.
I've been paying taxes on products from Amazon, Microsoft, Nintendo and Steam for as long they've been selling things online. And between them they account for about 90% of my online purchases.
The laws may be a bit fuzzy when someone here in Washington is selling something to someone back east in Connecticut or wherever, but when they're selling it to someone here in Washington it's always been quite clear.
Here in europe we got Value Added Tax (like everywhere but america and switzerland, you silly cavemen). it includes digital purchases. if a regular purchase is taxes, so should be a digital one. they are essentially the same. currently what gaming industry is doing with dlc is a tax exploit.
the antitax peoples logic is like "i like driving so you should make gas cheap because many people like that". which is a faulty logic to begin with.
the antitax peoples logic is like "i like driving so you should make gas cheap because many people like that". which is a faulty logic to begin with.
thats because they are.theultimateend said:
Wait, american states collect taxes? Well this is going to be a clusterfuck. Make it a federal tax, and divy out the money to the states (off population please, not electoral importance)
Boohoo, 8% - in the UK we pay 20% tax on pretty much everything. This is like the fuel price grumbling that we hear from America all the time. We pay more than double in tax, and we pay more than double for fuel, man up and stop bitching, it could be bloody worse. America has had it pretty fricken sweet for too long, welcome to reality, and don't think for 1 second that it's not gonna get worse - your fuel prices will rise, your sales tax rate will rise.
And the sad thing is that both the UK and the US seem to have completely the wrong governments to deal with global recession.
And the sad thing is that both the UK and the US seem to have completely the wrong governments to deal with global recession.
I live in Washington State, and I don't remember NOT paying sales tax on online purchases. Sales tax is EXTREMELY regressive, and should be kept to a minimum, but here in the evergreen state, that is what we have, so I guess we will just have one more state to commiserate with.
YAY us.
YAY us.
Yes you pay a lot more for things like gas, but if you look at income levels for people in the UK vs us here in the US (even after factoring out the exchange rate) you guys still get paid considerably more than we do, AND you have more social services, so as far as total personal profit is concerned, you guys still come off better than we do here.surg3n said: