Ugh… Taxes by Law – aka… people wanting money they don’t deserve. Pfffttt. If I thought that 6% tax on 10 dollars on gems would get my street paved, I’d shut up about it, but…
I use to be a Ritualist and a Paragon in my former life…
$100 USD worth of gems actually costs ME ~$141 AUD.
I tried looking in stores for gem cards but couldn’t find any, sadly.
Even EB? What state are you in? I can get them from one or more of the EB shops here on the NSW central coast, and a particular EB shop in Sydney occasionally scrounge them from other shops if they run out. Those guys told me that the supplier doesn’t see the value in them at the moment because of the exchange rate so resupply might be just slow.
Fire up the Hyperbowl ma, we’re going to town!
Would you like some hard cheeze with your sad whine?
I bought gems last week-no tax. This week I bought another $20-$1.25 in tax. I should thank them-gonna save me a ton of money because I’m not buying gems anymore. I refuse to pay sales tax on a non tangible item that didn’t have to be shipped anywhere, that’s just bs. I guess I better make my 3k gems last but at least that stops my ridiculous key addiction. I’m on the East Coast of USA by the way. I must have spent over $500 in the gem store minimum. Thanks for the tax update Anet-you just lost a good gem store customer.
I bought gems last week-no tax. This week I bought another $20-$1.25 in tax. I should thank them-gonna save me a ton of money cause I’m not buying gems anymore. I refuse to pay sales tax on a non tangible item that didn’t have to be shipped anywhere, that’s just bs. I guess I better make my 3k gems last but at least that stops my ridiculous key addiction.
Taxes are set by your government, not ANet. They decide what is taxed and how much. If one thing is taxed and not another, then it’s how your government set the tax laws. ANet does not have the choice to refuse to collect the taxes your govenment sets.
Don’t buy gems if you don’t don’t want to. But don’t blame a company for following the law.
Be careful what you ask for
ANet may give it to you.
Actually it’s the payment processor ANet uses that as part of their service makes sure that they collect taxes where it’s appropriate. As states and even major cities pass laws to tax these type of internet commerce, people will keep finding taxes on items that were once tax free online.
I bought gems last week-no tax. This week I bought another $20-$1.25 in tax. I should thank them-gonna save me a ton of money because I’m not buying gems anymore. I refuse to pay sales tax on a non tangible item that didn’t have to be shipped anywhere, that’s just bs. I guess I better make my 3k gems last but at least that stops my ridiculous key addiction. I’m on the East Coast of USA by the way. I must have spent over $500 in the gem store minimum. Thanks for the tax update Anet-you just lost a good gem store customer.
Anet doesn’t control your local tax laws; blame your city and/or state for deciding to change.
Ugh… Taxes by Law – aka… people wanting money they don’t deserve. Pfffttt. If I thought that 6% tax on 10 dollars on gems would get my street paved, I’d shut up about it, but…
Ugh… Taxes by Law – aka… people wanting money they don’t deserve. Pfffttt. If I thought that 6% tax on 10 dollars on gems would get my street paved, I’d shut up about it, but…
Your primary school education was paid for by taxes….
Maybe those people whose taxes paid for your schooling should ask for their money back
That comment seems beneath you. Commiserating on tax rates and what the taxes are used for hardly merits a cutting remark about someone’s education.
Considering the person was saying that taxes go to people who don’t deserve them, I thought it was very fitting as he didn’t seem to know how much he has benefitted by taxes.
I am a public school teacher, so I literally receive my living from tax revenue. Yet I can still understand why people don’t feel they are not getting value for the amount of taxes they pay. It is difficult to watch incredible inefficiency on a daily basis.
Demanding value for your dollars isn’t a bad thing. But maybe I gave him the benefit of the doubt undeservedly.
Still, I read most of your posts and appreciate your even-handedness on most occasions. It seemed like an unnecessary comment.
In The Netherlands (EU) for example 800gems I pay €10.- (including tax)
But I dont care tbh. What I dont like is when I have to wait after I bought gems.
Mostly I receive my gem order instantly. Sometimes I have to wait longer then 20minutes. Those things kittenes me off xd
Sît[MII]Ultimate Dominator
U N D E R W O R L D
W v W-r o a m e r
Taxes are set by your local, state and federal governments. Companies are required by law to collect these taxes and must update the taxes collected when the laws are changed. So, if you’re paying taxes that you weren’t before, then new laws were passed.
Be careful what you ask for
ANet may give it to you.
I want to know if these taxes are local to you, or just applied as a blanket to everybody. Also taxes are evil.
Like all taxes they’re set by your state or country government, so they’re local to you. The tax I pay as a UK resident is different to what someone in Australia pays, and in the USA it can be different for each state.
And as Just A Flesh Wound said it’s a legal requirement that Arenanet charges you that money and gives it to your government – not something they can choose to include or ignore. They can’t even control how much it is.
Danielle Aurorel, Dear Dragon We Got Your Cookies [Nom], Desolation (EU).
Has anyone noticed they are suddenly being charged tax, when they were NOT previously?
Federal, State|Provincial, and Local laws often change around the 1st of January. Your [insert taxing authority] finally decided to collect sales tax on ‘virtual’ purchases, as some have been doing for a while.
In any case, this isn’t up to ANet.
John Smith: “you should kill monsters, because killing monsters is awesome.”
In general though, if the company has a physical presence in your state, they have to charge you sales tax. If not then, at least here in NY, you have to report a use tax at the end of the year when you file.
If you are EU I believe the VAT exists and is like 20% or something but I’m iffy at best on the rules of that.
The collection of sales tax is not something that we control. As pointed out in this and other threads, our billing provider is required by law to collect a form of tax (sales, VAT, whatever it may be called or however it is defined) for gem purchases.
You may research the “where and why” of this issue on these resources:
If you are EU I believe the VAT exists and is like 20% or something but I’m iffy at best on the rules of that.
A lot of countries require that the ‘price’ includes VAT. Businesses in the US have long lobbied that sales tax be measured at the point of sale (since it hides the total cost to the purchaser). So sometimes people in the US get the mistaken impression that we pay more in sales tax, since we always notice the mark-up.
John Smith: “you should kill monsters, because killing monsters is awesome.”
VAT (value added tax, aka sales tax) is charged in the EU, but the rate varies between countries, and just like in other places governments will charge it from time to time.
It’s currently 20% in the UK, and Wikipedia tells me it ranges between 17% and 27% across all EU countries currently.
Illconceived Was Na is also correct that it’s included in the display price, which can sometimes make it seem (particularly to people who aren’t familiar with this system) like there isn’t any tax. For example when I look at the price of gems in GW2 it says it’s £8.50 for 800, and what I’m actually charged at the end of the transaction is £8.50. But 20% of that is actually tax.
(Even more confusingly some systems, clearly designed for the US system, have a ‘tax’ or ‘additional tax’ column in the payment confirmation which will display £0.00 because it’s not adding any tax, in spite of the fact that tax is already included.)
Danielle Aurorel, Dear Dragon We Got Your Cookies [Nom], Desolation (EU).
That reminds me, and I am sorry for deviating the subject a bit but it’s been answered, why is it when I choose Canada as my country, the prices do not adjust to CAD? I always end up paying around 5$ more when it bills and I just don’t understand why the system is not showing me the CAD prices.
That reminds me, and I am sorry for deviating the subject a bit but it’s been answered, why is it when I choose Canada as my country, the prices do not adjust to CAD? I always end up paying around 5$ more when it bills and I just don’t understand why the system is not showing me the CAD prices.
Presumably because it only has two pricings that it displays, American dollars and the Euro.
Be careful what you ask for
ANet may give it to you.
That reminds me, and I am sorry for deviating the subject a bit but it’s been answered, why is it when I choose Canada as my country, the prices do not adjust to CAD? I always end up paying around 5$ more when it bills and I just don’t understand why the system is not showing me the CAD prices.
Because there aren’t any. Same as there aren’t options for Aussie or Kiwi dollars, or anything else other than what’s listed. Look for game cards since they’ll be sold in your currency.
Fire up the Hyperbowl ma, we’re going to town!
Would you like some hard cheeze with your sad whine?
You guys have no idea, haha.
I’m from a country where 30-33% of our Income goes away as tax.
Though we have free education, free healthcare and so on, but still.
I buy gems in Euro, even though it’s not my currency. 10€ / 800 gems. It doesn’t say tax at all. Suppose thats included.
AUD and USD is different and I believe currently it sits at AUD$1 – USD$0.6.
So my Dollar is only worth 60c to America. We have to pay the tax because there is no AUS servers, unlike league of legends who have OCX servers and do not require you to pay those taxes.
I mostly play for the new Free-For-All arena in PvP lobby.
….. And Elementalist.
That reminds me, and I am sorry for deviating the subject a bit but it’s been answered, why is it when I choose Canada as my country, the prices do not adjust to CAD? I always end up paying around 5$ more when it bills and I just don’t understand why the system is not showing me the CAD prices.
Presumably because it only has two pricings that it displays, American dollars and the Euro.
That’s disappointing. I used to buy prepaid credit cards because I don’t own a credit card (I’m a student) so it was a real pain in the kitten to deal with the extra I had to pay because of currency exchange. I always ended up with approximately 7$ left on those cards that I couldn’t use because of the increments of gems.
That reminds me, and I am sorry for deviating the subject a bit but it’s been answered, why is it when I choose Canada as my country, the prices do not adjust to CAD? I always end up paying around 5$ more when it bills and I just don’t understand why the system is not showing me the CAD prices.
Presumably because it only has two pricings that it displays, American dollars and the Euro.
That’s disappointing. I used to buy prepaid credit cards because I don’t own a credit card (I’m a student) so it was a real pain in the kitten to deal with the extra I had to pay because of currency exchange. I always ended up with approximately 7$ left on those cards that I couldn’t use because of the increments of gems.
I have never seen GW2 gemcards in my area.
You can’t add more money to those cards? The ones in my area have a Visa or MasterCard logo and you can add money to them as you want at the grocery store that sells them.
Be careful what you ask for
ANet may give it to you.
AUD and USD is different and I believe currently it sits at AUD$1 – USD$0.6.
So my Dollar is only worth 60c to America. We have to pay the tax because there is no AUS servers, unlike league of legends who have OCX servers and do not require you to pay those taxes.
We’re up to 71c today. Which still sucks. I bought loads of gems when we were at 90c plus but not so many now.
Oh, and we don’t have the tax they’re talking about. We only have exchange fees.
Fire up the Hyperbowl ma, we’re going to town!
Would you like some hard cheeze with your sad whine?
That reminds me, and I am sorry for deviating the subject a bit but it’s been answered, why is it when I choose Canada as my country, the prices do not adjust to CAD? I always end up paying around 5$ more when it bills and I just don’t understand why the system is not showing me the CAD prices.
Presumably because it only has two pricings that it displays, American dollars and the Euro.
That’s disappointing. I used to buy prepaid credit cards because I don’t own a credit card (I’m a student) so it was a real pain in the kitten to deal with the extra I had to pay because of currency exchange. I always ended up with approximately 7$ left on those cards that I couldn’t use because of the increments of gems.
I have never seen GW2 gemcards in my area.
You can’t add more money to those cards? The ones in my area have a Visa or MasterCard logo and you can add money to them as you want at the grocery store that sells them.
That reminds me, and I am sorry for deviating the subject a bit but it’s been answered, why is it when I choose Canada as my country, the prices do not adjust to CAD? I always end up paying around 5$ more when it bills and I just don’t understand why the system is not showing me the CAD prices.
Presumably because it only has two pricings that it displays, American dollars and the Euro.
That’s disappointing. I used to buy prepaid credit cards because I don’t own a credit card (I’m a student) so it was a real pain in the kitten to deal with the extra I had to pay because of currency exchange. I always ended up with approximately 7$ left on those cards that I couldn’t use because of the increments of gems.
I have never seen GW2 gemcards in my area.
You can’t add more money to those cards? The ones in my area have a Visa or MasterCard logo and you can add money to them as you want at the grocery store that sells them.
Nah they’re preset amount (25/50/75/100/etc)
Have you ever tried? It’s been a few years but I’m pretty sure the ones I bought were preset also, but I still was able to add more as needed. They get money from the businesses when you use these cards and possibly also money from loaning out money unspent on all the cards out there, so it’s to their benefit for you to keep using them. Take one to the store you bought it from and ask if money can be added to it.
Be careful what you ask for
ANet may give it to you.
Ok, I have checked tax laws here in Massachusetts. If the business has an office or warehouse in the state they must charge a tax. Now as of yesterday I was charged a tax on the TP front for gem purchase (never charged a tax before) Does ANet now have an office/warehouse in MA.?
When I purchase a gem card at nearbyTarget store no tax is charged.
You guys have no idea, haha.
I’m from a country where 30-33% of our Income goes away as tax.
Though we have free education, free healthcare and so on, but still.
I buy gems in Euro, even though it’s not my currency. 10€ / 800 gems. It doesn’t say tax at all. Suppose thats included.
In the US, many people pay even more than 30-33% (when including all Federal, State and Local taxes) yet there is not free healthcare… go figure.
Ok, I have checked tax laws here in Massachusetts. If the business has an office or warehouse in the state they must charge a tax. Now as of yesterday I was charged a tax on the TP front for gem purchase (never charged a tax before) Does ANet now have an office/warehouse in MA.?
When I purchase a gem card at nearbyTarget store no tax is charged.
Its not anet, its whether their payment processor that they use has a presence in MA (or wherever). I believe the processor is a decent size and has offices all over the country (likely incl MA)
That reminds me, and I am sorry for deviating the subject a bit but it’s been answered, why is it when I choose Canada as my country, the prices do not adjust to CAD? I always end up paying around 5$ more when it bills and I just don’t understand why the system is not showing me the CAD prices.
Presumably because it only has two pricings that it displays, American dollars and the Euro.
That’s disappointing. I used to buy prepaid credit cards because I don’t own a credit card (I’m a student) so it was a real pain in the kitten to deal with the extra I had to pay because of currency exchange. I always ended up with approximately 7$ left on those cards that I couldn’t use because of the increments of gems.
I have never seen GW2 gemcards in my area.
You can’t add more money to those cards? The ones in my area have a Visa or MasterCard logo and you can add money to them as you want at the grocery store that sells them.
In Canada they aren’t reload cards. It’s a 1 time use. And they don’t sell gem cards up here. Montreal had them like 2 years ago. Thankfully, we don’t have to pay sales tax because it’s higher.
To Kitta: Check with your bank, some of them are added visa to their debit cards. TD has them attached to the card, RBC has an online only card they send you. It helps. And they aren’t visas, so you don’t have to do a credit card, it just uses your bank account.
What I don’t understand is that I literally just went to Best Buy and bought 2 of the $15 Gem cards that they have. It was $30.00 even with no tax at all. But when I buy them through the gemstore online I get charged roughly 6% tax. Someone tell me how that works?
And I live in Illinois for reference. Not that I’d be surprised if this screwed up state some how had tax for online purchases but not physical purchases of online entities. But still curious since it seems someone is screwing up some where.
What I don’t understand is that I literally just went to Best Buy and bought 2 of the $15 Gem cards that they have. It was $30.00 even with no tax at all. But when I buy them through the gemstore online I get charged roughly 6% tax. Someone tell me how that works?
And I live in Illinois for reference. Not that I’d be surprised if this screwed up state some how had tax for online purchases but not physical purchases of online entities. But still curious since it seems someone is screwing up some where.
Gem card probably consider gift card. I think in US and many other place can not charge tax on purchase of gift card. Where you live probably have some tax on internet purchase.
Gem card probably consider gift card. I think in US and many other place can not charge tax on purchase of gift card. Where you live probably have some tax on internet purchase.
Yeah I’m guessing you’re right even though it makes no sense. I mean I understand it looks like a gift card but it’s not really. So basically the smart thing to do is to always buy the physical cards vs online which seems backwards but oh well. And to be clear not blaming anet for this or anything. Just the idiots who make up the laws for this sort of thing.
Gem card probably consider gift card. I think in US and many other place can not charge tax on purchase of gift card. Where you live probably have some tax on internet purchase.
Yeah I’m guessing you’re right even though it makes no sense. I mean I understand it looks like a gift card but it’s not really. So basically the smart thing to do is to always buy the physical cards vs online which seems backwards but oh well. And to be clear not blaming anet for this or anything. Just the idiots who make up the laws for this sort of thing.
Well maybe not. Depend on if you think cost of travel to store to get the card. Unless you walk or ride bicycle you maybe spend same amount as tax on gas, train or bus.
If it was just sales tax being added, then sure, maybe something changed.
However, after being suddenly charged tax on 3/8, 3/15 and 3/17, I am once again no longer charged tax on 3/31. I’m sorry, but laws and/or physical presence don’t usually change on a monthly basis…
Its not anet, its whether their payment processor that they use has a presence in MA (or wherever). I believe the processor is a decent size and has offices all over the country (likely incl MA)
Also, I’m not sure this is correct. The actual seller of the goods/services is not the payment processor; they simply provide the means for conducting the transaction. At the end of the year, it’s ArenaNet/NCSoft who report the sales figures and remit the sales tax collected to the appropriate local authorities. Take a look at Amazon, for instance. Because they have a physical presence in my state, they collect sales tax for any items I purchase from them; however, no taxes are collected for third-party merchants without physical presence in my state who simply use Amazon as their payment processor.
Not saying that this applies to everyone, but I would not be surprised if there was a mix-up that caused the temporary taxation. Having been in the support business, I’ve come to realize that many genuine issues are glossed over from lack of volume.
