Sony to start implementing sales taxes on PSN games

[MHD_es3af]

Sad for you

[Bullstomp]

9 hours ago, ryan32289 said:

I just got an email from Sony saying this: 

 

Hello valued PlayStation customer, 

We are writing to inform you that PlayStation®Store, including all services such as PlayStation Vue, PlayStation Plus, PlayStation Now, and PlayStation Music, will start collecting tax in your state starting  April 1, 2017. The sales tax charged on each order is determined by your state, county and city tax rates.

For additional information please visit: https://support.us.playstation.com/articles/en_US/KC_Article/PlayStation-Store-Sales-Tax-Collection 
 

What are your thoughts and opinions about this?

I can't believe no one else picked up on this yet. Look at the implementation date of this new policy. APRIL FOOLS!

 

Coincidence? You decide

[Dav9834]

3 minutes ago, Bullstomp said:

I can't believe no one else picked up on this yet. Look at the implementation date of this new policy. APRIL FOOLS!

 

Coincidence? You decide

They wouldn't use the word taxes, it's too twisted lol

Nice catch though!!! 

[audiopile]

Paying your taxes is one of the easiest ways to be a good citizen. You have just been given another opportunity to contribute to society.  

[Dav9834]

1 minute ago, audiopile said:

Paying your taxes is one of the easiest ways to be a good citizen. You have just been given another opportunity to contribute to society.  

Yup I do what I can so they can buy more $10,000 toilets and $6,000 plungers

 

[Cynthia-Roses]

10 hours ago, Dragon-Archon said:

I really hope Sony won't implement this in EU. Adding 21% of tax is a pretty huge price increase.

 

It's happening to Steam, this will likely come to PSN too. The law is finally cracking down on this stuff.

 

FORTUNATELY neither of these will affect me because my mailing address is an APO, so my I am tax free.

[Redgrave]

22 hours ago, Bullstomp said:

I can't believe no one else picked up on this yet. Look at the implementation date of this new policy. APRIL FOOLS!

 

Coincidence? You decide

 

I also noticed the date. I can't help but be skeptical any time I see something dated for April 1'st, and I really wouldn't put it past them or another company doing trying to pull peoples legs a month prior.

 

Another thing that also caught my attention is how whenever you look it up, there's barely anyone talking about it. Normally when this sort of thing is actually happening there's already a dozen or so articles from big media and tech sites talking about it, but so far the only thing is PlayStation Lifestyle and what I assume to be a blog/newsletter hybrid have talked about it. Unless they actually do make a conference or whatever and talk about it to confirm it I'm just going to assume it's a dumb joke. If not though I'll eat my hat.

[damon8r351]

19 minutes ago, Redgrave said:

 

I also noticed the date. I can't help but be skeptical any time I see something dated for April 1'st, and I really wouldn't put it past them or another company doing trying to pull peoples legs a month prior.

 

Another thing that also caught my attention is how whenever you look it up, there's barely anyone talking about it. Normally when this sort of thing is actually happening there's already a dozen or so articles from big media and tech sites talking about it, but so far the only thing is PlayStation Lifestyle and what I assume to be a blog/newsletter hybrid have talked about it. Unless they actually do make a conference or whatever and talk about it to confirm it I'm just going to assume it's a dumb joke. If not though I'll eat my hat.

 

Go get your preferred seasonings for hats, because it's on Playstation Support, as the original post states.

 

April 1st is irrelevant inasmuch as April Fools is concerned. It's also the beginning of a new quarter in both calendar and certain fiscal years. A convenient time for rule changes to take effect.

Edited March 5, 2017 by damon8r351

[charlijaen]

On 3/3/2017 at 10:46 PM, Dragon-Archon said:

I really hope Sony won't implement this in EU. Adding 21% of tax is a pretty huge price increase.

Thankfully, in EU we have a law that forces all prices to have all taxes included, so you only pay the amount especified on the price tag.

And taxes are taken from a percentage of that value. For example, in Spain it's 21%. So, for example: If I buy a game in PS Store for 50€ Sony receives 39.50€ and Spanish government gets 10.50€

 

So, Europe will be unaffected on this.

The funny thing is that some states don't have sales tax, so you could change your address to one of those, but that's tax evasion and I don't know if you can get in trouble.

[Combatting]

On 04/03/2017 at 1:43 AM, ValkyrieX said:

Got the email as well.  Just changed my address to Oregon.  So I should be good until Oregon starts charging tax.  

And you can get done for tax evasion. Enjoy. Can't believe people are doing this just to avoid paying taxes when no doubt it will end up being across all states at some point.

[Valyrious]

So many people trying to avoid taxes by lying about where you live. Just pay the extra dollars.

 

Guessing Canada isn't going to get hit with this yet, but even if we did, I'd be fine with it. Even if digital games got tax, they're still better than physical games.

[Satoshi Ookami]

12 minutes ago, Valyrious said:

Even if digital games got tax, they're still better than physical games.

In what way? o.O

 

Not only they are not physical, they would be more expensive and... they would be better?

[Kent10201]

I'm so glad I live in New York because having to put more money down for digital games would be a major inconvenience.

[DamagingRob]

19 minutes ago, Valyrious said:

So many people trying to avoid taxes by lying about where you live. Just pay the extra dollars.

Let's take one for the team, then. Zipcode changes to pay sales taxes goooo!!!

[Gray-Fox-44]

I'm already paying about a 20% extra in Argentina. I don't know why, but the prices are higher than those of a US account... I just hope that the prices don't go even higher  

 

5 minutes ago, Satoshi Ookami said:

In what way? o.O

 

Not only they are not physical, they would be more expensive and... they would be better?

I'm just guessing here... Maybe he/she refers to the prices being lower for digital purchases, even after the taxes? I mean, in here physical games are about a 50~70% more expensive than the digital ones. So the final price is still better. 

[Valyrious]

2 hours ago, Satoshi Ookami said:

In what way? o.O

 

Not only they are not physical, they would be more expensive and... they would be better?

You can play a game on midnight at launch instead of waiting the next day if you preordered online, or if you preordered in a store and they don't have a launch event, which is still better digital because you don't have to go anywhere...

 

You don't need a disc, so you don't have to constantly get up and change discs to play something.

 

The only bonus to buying physical is if you're selling it or lending it to a friend. And let's be honest, if you're buying a game only to sell it when you're done, video games aren't a very good hobby for you.

Collector's Editions are the ONLY instance I buy anything physical anymore. Standard games though? What is the fucking point, unless the price is over $20 cheaper than digital.

[Satoshi Ookami]

8 hours ago, Valyrious said:

You can play a game on midnight at launch instead of waiting the next day if you preordered online, or if you preordered in a store and they don't have a launch event, which is still better digital because you don't have to go anywhere...

But that means you are paying full price for digital So you will be paying more than for used physical copy =D

 

8 hours ago, Valyrious said:

You don't need a disc, so you don't have to constantly get up and change discs to play something.

You don't need that if you just finish the game before playing something else

[MMDE]

Can you still buy a year PS+ sub card?

 

Where I'm from it should all already be included. Really, that's the practice here. We don't feel the need to have one price for the customer for then just to add another 10% afterwards, though here it's 25%.

Edited March 7, 2017 by MMDE

[Valyrious]

36 minutes ago, Satoshi Ookami said:

But that means you are paying full price for digital So you will be paying more than for used physical copy =D

 

You don't need that if you just finish the game before playing something else

Most people are paying full price for physical. What's the difference? The illusion that you have something on the shelf to show off? A plastic case with a very cheap printed cover, and a disc. Ooh, very vintage. People collect games physically now after seeing how old school games get valuable as all fuck after 10 years. The problem is that since almost everybody is doing it now, these games don't gain tremendous value over an extended period of time. In fact they diminish in value at a faster rate than ever before. There are of course exceptions, like the Yazuka's of the world that always have a limited print and then become very hard to find, thereby expensive.

 

As for your second point, that is only if someone plays one game at a time. Me personally, I enjoy the freedom of switching between any 3-5 games that I have in rotation. You can do that with physical copies, but again, disc swapping is a nuisance. 

Digital is all about convenience. There's very little convenient about requiring a disc in order to play something. Imagine someone robbed your massive physical collection, say goodbye to years of collecting. Not the case if you had a digital only (or majority) library, even if the thief stole your console.

[madbuk]

53 minutes ago, Satoshi Ookami said:

But that means you are paying full price for digital So you will be paying more than for used physical copy =D

 

You don't need that if you just finish the game before playing something else

Some people like to actually support the hard work of developers and buy the game new. If you buy it used they don't even get a penny.

13 minutes ago, Valyrious said:

Most people are paying full price for physical. What's the difference? The illusion that you have something on the shelf to show off? A plastic case with a very cheap printed cover, and a disc. Ooh, very vintage. People collect games physically now after seeing how old school games get valuable as all fuck after 10 years. The problem is that since almost everybody is doing it now, these games don't gain tremendous value over an extended period of time. In fact they diminish in value at a faster rate than ever before. There are of course exceptions, like the Yazuka's of the world that always have a limited print and then become very hard to find, thereby expensive.

 

As for your second point, that is only if someone plays one game at a time. Me personally, I enjoy the freedom of switching between any 3-5 games that I have in rotation. You can do that with physical copies, but again, disc swapping is a nuisance. 

Digital is all about convenience. There's very little convenient about requiring a disc in order to play something. Imagine someone robbed your massive physical collection, say goodbye to years of collecting. Not the case if you had a digital only (or majority) library, even if the thief stole your console.

Physical libraries can be robbed, digital libraries can be compromised. If you get banned, or your account gets hacked, you can say goodbye to your dntire digital collection.

 

I mean, I prefer digital. It's cheaper and I'm supporting the developers, but let's not pretend physical doesn't have some benefits.

[jacks]

Meh, I get this on One and Wii U already. Sucks, but what ya gonna do?

 

PS, If it hasn't already been answered -  to the guy asking earlier about if you are going to get charged twice (taxed once for buying a PSN card in store, and then again for buying a game online): if it works anything like Xbox One and Wii U (and I HIGHLY think it will), then it'll be tax free in store, so 20 bucks = 20 bucks.... but you'll get nailed upon checkout on the PSN store with whatever you buy, so just make extra sure you are aware of what you are buying at Best Buy/Gamestop/et al before walking out with too little for what you intend on buying through the store. Simply put, a 20 dollar PSN card is not going to be enough to cover the taxes on a 19.99 indie game anymore, which is what kind of sucked on One and Wii U.

[sephirothdude]

They better not bring this to Europe 

[Satoshi Ookami]

11 minutes ago, sephirothdude said:

They better not bring this to Europe 

 

On 3/3/2017 at 11:43 PM, Satoshi Ookami said:

Um... they already did =D

 

[Dav9834]

37 minutes ago, sephirothdude said:

They better not bring this to Europe 

You guys get taxed plenty, you're in the clear

 

[Valyrious]

9 hours ago, madbuk said:

Some people like to actually support the hard work of developers and buy the game new. If you buy it used they don't even get a penny.

Physical libraries can be robbed, digital libraries can be compromised. If you get banned, or your account gets hacked, you can say goodbye to your dntire digital collection.

 

I mean, I prefer digital. It's cheaper and I'm supporting the developers, but let's not pretend physical doesn't have some benefits.

Physical has the only benefits that I already listed. There are no other benefits.

If I'm going to buy a game day one, which admittingly I don't do very often anymore, it's a game I don't want to wait for. So getting it immediately at midnight without needing to go anywhere is maximum convenience. You can preload a game entirely and start playing as soon as you download the day one patch. Which for me I get 5mb/s downloads from my PS4 so it doesn't take long no matter how big it is.

A library getting robbed is out of your control though. Getting banned or hacked IS in your control. As long as you have two factor activated and you don't share your information with anybody, then there isn't really a problem at all. If you're still not utilizing two factor, well, then you're asking to get hacked I guess.