visighost Posted January 2, 2019 Share Posted January 2, 2019 I had totally forgotten that Quebec was starting to collect sales tax on digital content in 2019. On one hand, this was definitely overdue and I support it as a citizen. On the other... everything is now 10% more expensive. Is Quebec the only province that does that? Asking for a friend. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MidnightDragon Posted January 2, 2019 Share Posted January 2, 2019 I dunno, but several US states (including Missouri) started doing so, too. And a number did before that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
iJLAW_ Posted January 2, 2019 Share Posted January 2, 2019 I remember the US (At least Ohio) Did charge it, then randomly stopped, then started again Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
visighost Posted January 2, 2019 Author Share Posted January 2, 2019 After some testing, it seems changing your payment method to Paypal allows you to go around it. Not sure if the system checks the residential address you put in or not, but it's not like it was used for anything in the first place... Not that I encourage playing the system. But playable it is. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RevengeancePrime Posted January 2, 2019 Share Posted January 2, 2019 I'm in Ontario. I might pick up some games this week, so I'll update this post if I'm taxed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
visighost Posted January 2, 2019 Author Share Posted January 2, 2019 11 minutes ago, ObliviousSenpai said: I'm in Ontario. I might pick up some games this week, so I'll update this post if I'm taxed. That's where I changed the address to and I was not, so you should be good! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ampplaca Posted January 2, 2019 Share Posted January 2, 2019 12 minutes ago, ObliviousSenpai said: I'm in Ontario. I might pick up some games this week, so I'll update this post if I'm taxed. Just bought a game and Ontario still doesn't tax 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nieird Posted January 2, 2019 Share Posted January 2, 2019 Its only in quebec at this moment. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sydoki Posted January 2, 2019 Share Posted January 2, 2019 Yikes...let's hope that it doesn't spread to other provinces ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NaseemJohn Posted January 2, 2019 Share Posted January 2, 2019 (edited) This is pretty lame. The main reason I went digital was to avoid the high cost of games here in Montreal. Edit: Just changed my adress and there's no tax. Edited January 2, 2019 by NaseemJohn Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted January 2, 2019 Share Posted January 2, 2019 If taxes is gonna be a part of the store digital sales here. I may kiss digital sales goodbye. Getting taxed for something with no resale value sure is nice. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KingGuy420 Posted January 2, 2019 Share Posted January 2, 2019 The fact that Canadians already pay 25% more is already crappy. This is just a slap in the face lol. Hopefully my province keeps this out. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nieird Posted January 2, 2019 Share Posted January 2, 2019 12 minutes ago, KingGuy420 said: The fact that Canadians already pay 25% more is already crappy. This is just a slap in the face lol. Hopefully my province keeps this out. We pay 25% more because our dollars is worth 25% less than US dollars. 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lordguwa Posted January 2, 2019 Share Posted January 2, 2019 (edited) 51 minutes ago, ERGOPROXY-DECAY said: If taxes is gonna be a part of the store digital sales here. I may kiss digital sales goodbye. Getting taxed for something with no resale value sure is nice. i don't agree with digital game taxes. physical game taxes are fair game since you're getting goods sent to address or bought in store. think i saw someone spend about 100$ and then have a 10% tax levied onto them. another 10$ extra. Edited January 2, 2019 by kingdrake2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KingGuy420 Posted January 2, 2019 Share Posted January 2, 2019 30 minutes ago, Nieird said: We pay 25% more because our dollars is worth 25% less than US dollars. I understand how economics works lol. But it's still 25% more no matter how you look at it. It's not like I started making 25% more money to make up the difference. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Caesar Clown Posted January 2, 2019 Share Posted January 2, 2019 It's looking like a Quebec-only thing, since your tax is handled differently than the rest of Canada. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gruffiiti Posted January 2, 2019 Share Posted January 2, 2019 No tax in AB on my purchase this morning. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Honor_Hand Posted January 2, 2019 Share Posted January 2, 2019 Thank God the alternate Canadian account I recently made was in Ontario. No sales taxes there but that was during the last week of December. Will be sure to update my Canadian address if the taxes come to Ontario though. Would rather not pay taxes of a place I don't even live in Much less on a digital game Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
El-Sublime- Posted January 2, 2019 Share Posted January 2, 2019 Here in Argentina we buy the games more expensive than other regions, and ALSO pay extra taxes. i.e a new AAA game costs around US$ 60, but we pay it for US$72. Nobody knows why, because we MUST pay in dollars, not in pesos. Also add the 21% of the final price: that give us a total price of US$87,12, that's a 45,2% more than U.S. consumers. I will be happy if only need to pay %10, even when Canada is a country much more advanced than Argentina (what a ironic). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PatVach Posted January 2, 2019 Share Posted January 2, 2019 yes, it would seem that Quebec is the only place in Canada to tax it... and it's only the provincial tax, not the federal one. lucky for us, they won't make money over the tax too... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nieird Posted January 4, 2019 Share Posted January 4, 2019 On 02/01/2019 at 5:47 PM, KingGuy420 said: I understand how economics works lol. But it's still 25% more no matter how you look at it. It's not like I started making 25% more money to make up the difference. The price of a game is set in US currency. So at this moment the canadian dollars is worth 0.74 us dollars. If you would have to change your money in US currency to buy the game it would cost you 81$. If they dint do this and keep the same price (it use to be in early 2000), games in canada would be 25% cheapers. At one point the canadian dollars was worth 0.62$ american dollars, everyone in the State would have create a canadian account to have games 25-35% cheapers. For your salary, if you make 20$ / hours thats 15$ / hours in us currency(using the 25% difference). So its not 25% more its the same price with the rate change applied. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nieird Posted January 4, 2019 Share Posted January 4, 2019 On 02/01/2019 at 5:34 PM, kingdrake2 said: i don't agree with digital game taxes. physical game taxes are fair game since you're getting goods sent to address or bought in store. think i saw someone spend about 100$ and then have a 10% tax levied onto them. another 10$ extra. There's tax on everything not only goods. Also with those tax it helps pay the social infrastructure, so sending my kid to kindergarten cost in Montreal around 170$ / month while it cost in toronto area over 1000$ / month. Thats over 800$ I could spend on game(if I had more time to play). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AndresLionheart Posted January 4, 2019 Share Posted January 4, 2019 (edited) On 2/1/2019 at 8:10 PM, AN0n1m8 said: Here in Argentina we buy the games more expensive than other regions, and ALSO pay extra taxes. i.e a new AAA game costs around US$ 60, but we pay it for US$72. Nobody knows why, because we MUST pay in dollars, not in pesos. Also add the 21% of the final price: that give us a total price of US$87,12, that's a 45,2% more than U.S. consumers. I will be happy if only need to pay %10, even when Canada is a country much more advanced than Argentina (what a ironic). It is very easy to avoid. I'm from Argentina but I have my account set to US. As my address I put somewhere that doesn't charge taxes and buy store credit through Play-asia (they are mostly a physical retailer, so digital IVA does not apply). You need to wait for "sales" to not pay the extra $1 or $2 they usually charge, though. Still, I don't buy many digital games (only those that are only digital or severely discounted, like over 50% at least). If you are being charged that much you should just buy physical. It's cheaper and your games have resell value. A newly released US$60 goes for US$75 physical. Edited January 4, 2019 by AndresLionheart Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BeautifulTorment Posted January 4, 2019 Share Posted January 4, 2019 47 minutes ago, Nieird said: The price of a game is set in US currency. So at this moment the canadian dollars is worth 0.74 us dollars. If you would have to change your money in US currency to buy the game it would cost you 81$. If they dint do this and keep the same price (it use to be in early 2000), games in canada would be 25% cheapers. At one point the canadian dollars was worth 0.62$ american dollars, everyone in the State would have create a canadian account to have games 25-35% cheapers. For your salary, if you make 20$ / hours thats 15$ / hours in us currency(using the 25% difference). So its not 25% more its the same price with the rate change applied. There was also a time when the dollar was on par. The price of everything was still more expensive here. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
visighost Posted January 4, 2019 Author Share Posted January 4, 2019 Taxes aren't evil. It of course never is a good feeling to pay more, but you get other, more abstract services in return. Think of all the game studios that are established in Montreal - we could debate at length the rationale for the tax credits the larger studios are getting (see here for an article on those benefits), but they are subsidized in some form by our taxes. As are pretty much all Canadian books, Canadian music, Canadian movies, etc. As for the price difference with the US, it's true of pretty much everything, across the world: I also collect LEGO, and the prices are usually out of touch with the exchange rate. Since games and other commodities have MSRPs (manufacturer's suggested retail prices), it would be unrealistic to expect retailers all over the country to change their prices whenever the currency fluctuates. Believe, as someone who ran a retail store with mostly imported goods, I HATED it back in the late naughts when there was a 30% swing between the US and Canadian dollars that screwed up any effort at being competitive with our neighbours. And I think overall we still have it pretty good over our European and Japanese friends... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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