Sony to start implementing sales taxes on PSN games

[Tearraven]

Not sure if Oklahoma is affected. Amazon is now doing sales tax starting this month, so I somewhat expect other services to start soon too. I wouldn't mind it personally, but my state will never use the tax money for things we need in my personal opinion.

[starcrunch061]

Good. Digital sales should be taxed. I don't know why so many states are allowing such large revenue streams to go untapped. Iowa is in the middle of yet another budget crunch, precisely because they don't tax what they should.

[ValkyrieX]

On 3/6/2017 at 3:20 PM, Combatting said:

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.

 

Nope, I pay use tax in my state per my income bracket.  That covers all taxable items or services where I didn't pay sales taxes on.

[Superstarmaste1r]

And Now I see Sony included tax where in Ohio, my state has tax on it. Kind of suck that it it is more where I don't know why Sony starts to include tax what's it's for that. Don't know if most states now will include tax ever since it now features tax.

[DamagingRob]

8 minutes ago, Superstarmaste1r said:

And Now I see Sony included tax where in Ohio, my state has tax on it. Kind of suck that it it is more where I don't know why Sony starts to include tax what's it's for that. Don't know if most states now will include tax ever since it now features tax.

That's not too surprising. If you look at the image Jibril posted, digital items are taxable in Ohio. Move to Illinois.  

 

If it ever becomes a county-wide thing, it'll be slightly annoying for someone like me, who pays with PSN cards. I'll have to calculate the tax, so I don't get a card, and end up not having enough for what I'm buying after tax. But with so many buying digital games, they're likely losing a lot of tax dollars from non-physical sales. I won't like it, but I can see why they're doing it.

 

Still feel that a digital good has less value than a physical one, though. You can't sell it once you're done. to get some money back. 

[Tristan1138]

Squeeze a lil more money out of us, why don't ya Sony?

[SuperSaiyan3985]

On 3/3/2017 at 4:36 PM, ryan32289 said:

I just got an email from Sony saying this: 

 

Hello valued PlayStation customer, 

We are writing to inform you that PlayStationStore, 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?

This just keeps getting better and better doesn't it?

[SoliDeoGloriaIHS]

Well now.  What's the old adage?  Only two things in life are certain: death and taxes.  'Nuff said.

[thegirlruka]

We were already supposed to put all untaxed online purchases on our yearly tax returns (at least in PA.) I guess enough people weren't doing it that they felt the need to charge it at checkout.

[DamagingRob]

24 minutes ago, Jibril said:

We were already supposed to put all untaxed online purchases on our yearly tax returns (at least in PA.) I guess enough people weren't doing it that they felt the need to charge it at checkout.

Well, of course. I used to order from Amazon all the time, simply because I'd save a few dollars on everything I bought from them. I wouldn't have put that shit on my tax return, either.

[fang7744]

Anyone know if this will affect Australia? 

[AJ_Radio]

1 hour ago, DamagingRob said:

That's not too surprising. If you look at the image Jibril posted, digital items are taxable in Ohio. Move to Illinois.  

 

If it ever becomes a county-wide thing, it'll be slightly annoying for someone like me, who pays with PSN cards. I'll have to calculate the tax, so I don't get a card, and end up not having enough for what I'm buying after tax. But with so many buying digital games, they're likely losing a lot of tax dollars from non-physical sales. I won't like it, but I can see why they're doing it.

 

Still feel that a digital good has less value than a physical one, though. You can't sell it once you're done. to get some money back. 

 

I have around 90+ retail games sitting on my bookshelf. I generally keep what I buy.

 

My NES/SNES and N64 game collection I may consider selling off. Since those games are "old" now they're actually worth a bit of money. I have Mario Party 3 and people are paying anywhere from $30 to $60 just for a used cartridge. I say that's pretty good. 

 

Sucks I didn't foretell some of those games being worth a fortune 20+ years from then. Otherwise I would of kept a couple games of mine in mint condition.

 

Don't know if I got taxed in my state yet. If or when it does I'm going to take a hit if I'm going to pay for 20 - 30 digital games. Another issue with digital games is you can get locked out on playing them if your PS4 isn't set to primary and you're on a different account.

Edited April 9, 2017 by Spaz

[DamagingRob]

@Spaz I never get rid of my games, either. Pretty much a packrat, in that regard.. But the option is there. And there's just something about a product that you can hold in your hands, that makes it seem more valuable to me.  It's only because of the great sale prices on digital games, that I've bought as much digitally as I have.

[AJ_Radio]

9 minutes ago, DamagingRob said:

@Spaz I never get rid of my games, either. Pretty much a packrat, in that regard.. But the option is there. And there's just something about a product that you can hold in your hands, that makes it seem more valuable to me.  It's only because of the great sale prices on digital games, that I've bought as much digitally as I have.

 

Mostly the digital only games I get through the Store, or if a physical game is offered for free on Plus. I definitely could of gotten a retail copy on Shovel Knight, but I didn't know that until after I bought the digital version. Plus with a disc that can hold 50 GBs, only seeing 200 - 300 MBs used is a waste.

[Devil_Spooky]

On 07/03/2017 at 6:57 PM, Valyrious said:

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.

 

Have fun trying to buy a delisted digital game, and I actually like to own the things I pay my money for, digital you don't own them, you borrow them, they can be taken away from you anytime they feel like it, closed servers (not that it's going to happen anytime soon with SONY but it's still a possibility) and bye bye entire digital library, digital is only better if you're lazy or can't wait a couple of hours or whatever time it takes to get home from the store, everything else physical has the upper hand.

[Valyrious]

17 minutes ago, Devil_Spooky said:

 

Have fun trying to buy a delisted digital game, and I actually like to own the things I pay my money for, digital you don't own them, you borrow them, they can be taken away from you anytime they feel like it, closed servers (not that it's going to happen anytime soon with SONY but it's still a possibility) and bye bye entire digital library, digital is only better if you're lazy or can't wait a couple of hours or whatever time it takes to get home from the store, everything else physical has the upper hand.

Never had a problem with digital before. Justify your own choices all you want. I couldn't care less.

[Fing3rButt3r3]

3 hours ago, TristanTehGamer1 said:

Squeeze a lil more money out of us, why don't ya Sony?

 

Sony doesn't get the little more money.?

[Super-Fly Spider-Guy]

We pay GST on EVERYTHING here anyways so I'm used to this shit, sucks for others though.

[AuzzieWingman]

2 hours ago, fang7744 said:

Anyone know if this will affect Australia? 

 

37 minutes ago, Super-Fly Spider-Guy said:

We pay GST on EVERYTHING here anyways so I'm used to this shit, sucks for others though.

 

Yeah, Australia already does this. That's why our stuff can be seemingly expensive in comparison to the US. New games are like $80-100 AUD versus $60 USD.

 

Put it this way Fang. If you see a price on a menu board, that's what you are going to pay. If that says $4, you pay that. That's how we are in Oz. In the US however, the GST isn't in that price tag, so they might ask for something like $4.35 for it instead despite it saying $4 on the menu board. This is more or less the same thing but in a digital goods sense.

 

Not all places do that though. When I was in Hawaii there was a burger joint we found that didn't take tax or tips and was cheap as all hell. We definitely went there a few times. We also ditched our coins at the first place that took them, because fuck counting by the ones. I was raised on multiples 5 cents thank you.

Edited April 9, 2017 by AuzzieWingman

[AJ_Radio]

8 minutes ago, AuzzieWingman said:

 

 

Yeah, Australia already does this. That's why our stuff can be seemingly expensive in comparison to the US. New games are like $80-100 AUD versus $60 USD.

 

Put it this way Fang. If you see a price on a menu board, that's what you are going to pay. If that says $4, you pay that. That's how we are in Oz. In the US however, the GST isn't in that price tag, so they might ask for something like $4.35 for it instead despite it saying $4 on the menu board. This is more or less the same thing but in a digital goods sense.

 

Not all places do that though. When I was in Hawaii there was a burger joint we found that didn't take tax or tips and was cheap as all hell. We definitely went there a few times. We also ditched our coins at the first place that took them, because fuck counting by the ones. I was raised on multiples 5 cents thank you.

 

Food like soda is more expensive there too if I recall. The cost of living in Melbourne and Sydney Australia is pretty high up there. I'd be on the streets broke given my shit wages and high debt.

[AuzzieWingman]

I mean, that can be relatively true. Right now Melbourne and Sydney, where I'm currently living, can be pretty pricey. I think in recent years Sydney has been in the top three most expensive places to live a few times.

 

The upside is that it is livable. From what I've learnt over the years, for the respective circumstances (whether that would be a coffee barista, supermarket attendant etc), we get paid equally on a weekly basis (at base value without currency conversion) . It's not entirely true but it generally evens out.

 

I mean I don't feel like I'm struggling with my rent or to buy games, doing a 9 to 5 of making coffee all week long. Granted I don't have a car so

[Devil_Spooky]

4 hours ago, Valyrious said:

Never had a problem with digital before. Justify your own choices all you want. I couldn't care less.

 

Just because you never had problems doesn't mean they're not there, games had been delisted before and you can't buy those anymore, and if someday SONY decides they're done with this gig and close every server and something happens with you HDD you'll lose everything you ever bought from there, those are real problems for a digital media, and there's no way to escape them.

[Satoshi Ookami]

6 hours ago, fang7744 said:

Anyone know if this will affect Australia? 

Australia is a part of Europe in PSN world.

And Europe pays taxes on everything by default.