Moms (VAT) Problems

[billairboy]

The Swedish Tax department "Skatteverket" has made a written statement that says that sales between players in virtual worlds should be subjet to "Mervärdesskatt" (VAT) if sales is more than 30 000 SEK/year and player, around 50K PED. If thats the case it's big, big trouble. How in earth are we going to manage that....??

Can be read here: (in swedish)
http://www.skatteverket.se/rattsinfo...800017115.html

[Usurper]

Yeah right.
It will be soo easy to sell something when you have to slap a 25% extra markup on the price.
That will work so well!

******NOT!*****

In any case, it is absolutly vital that MA makes an offocial
statement about this realy soon.
What is their posision on this and how will they handle it?
It is important for us participants to know if and when MA
starts to supply the IRS with our account details.

[aridash]

very interesting development. the debate on tax always focuses on income/gambling taxes, seems we overlooked this more relevant tax. Because however you cut it, a game or a service, transfer of actual ownership or transfer of perpetual lease, it would still qualify for VAT.

Would we pay at Swedish rates, or would we not be covered due to servers being hosted in Germany, how would it be evaluted to other EU residents, ie would i only have to pay UK rate @17.5%, would US/non-EU avatars get rebate?

Needs a serious review and answer from MA i think.

When does this come into effect?

[the-unknown]

Considering that MA is based in Sweden, it may affect them somewhat.

But what of the vast majority of the player base which is not in Sweden?

It will be good to know what MA has to say.

[Nighthawk]

I am pretty confident that MA will do their best to give us a good and serious answer as soon as they can.

Frank, Marco, we really need you now

[m0000]

"Eftersom en deltagare i ett online-spel normalt inte anger sin identitet och bosättning måste säljaren och ibland köparen efterfråga den information som krävs för att kunna fastställa om omsättningen har skett inom eller utom landet."

rough translation:

"because a participant in an onlinegame normally doesn't provide his identity and
residence, the seller and sometimes the buyer has to ask that information that is
required to be able to determine if the turnover has been done within or outside
the country"

great minds at work at tax office.

[Usurper]

Originally Posted by m0000

"because a participant in an onlinegame normally doesn't provide his identity and
residence, the seller and sometimes the buyer has to ask that information that is
required to be able to determine if the turnover has been done within or outside
the country

And that's where MA comes into the equation.
You can bet your bottom $ (or PED) that they are going to be
requested to turn over information about transactions made
inside EU.

From the EULA:

"MindArk intends to keep the identity of each Participant private to him or herself and to handle your Self-Registered Personal Data confidentially and according to MindArk's Privacy Policy, available at https://account.entropiauniverse.com/pe/en/rich/5766.html."

I think it's time people!

[Radio]

I do not and cannot charge VAT to my customers that reside outside the UK.

Hope this little bucket of water helps before this gets blown out of all proportion.

[aridash]

Originally Posted by Radio

I do not and cannot charge VAT to my customers that reside outside the UK.

You should be charging VAT to any EU based customer, check with your accountant. Its been like this afaik for some time now. I know for a fact I pay VAT to Dell based in Ireland.

[Coop_]

Originally Posted by billairboy

The Swedish Tax department "Skatteverket" has made a written statement that says that sales between players in virtual worlds should be subjet to "Mervärdesskatt" (VAT) if sales is more than 30 000 SEK/year and player, around 50K PED. If thats the case it's big, big trouble. How in earth are we going to manage that....??

Can be read here: (in swedish)
http://www.skatteverket.se/rattsinfo...800017115.html

Will there be "Duty Free Shops" at the server borders, soon?