Patreon Announcement & New Minigame Sneak Peek
Hi guys!
I have a Patreon-related announcement for you all today: Starting July 1st, some patrons may start to be charged sales tax on their pledges on Patreon.
Patreon will make the general announcement early next month, but they graciously gave us creators a few weeks in advance to let our patrons know directly. Here is what I took away from their presentation on the subject:
Patreon has already been collecting VAT from EU patrons for years. This extension to customers in the United States (and a few more countries) is a result of enforcement of a new law requiring digital storefronts (like Amazon and eBay) to pay sales tax.
Patreon estimates 30% of patrons will be affected, and that tax rates for residents of applicable states will be between 4-11%. You can check this list to see if you will be affected.
The tax will be charged to the patrons, not the creators, because in the United States it is generally not allowed to include tax in the ticket price. How much patrons will be taxed will vary by where you live and by the type of rewards you receive.
Creators will have some control over what patrons will pay. Patreon will be giving us tools that will allow us to declare our tiers as either containing physical rewards, digital rewards, or no rewards (tip only). Some categories may be taxed less or not at all, depending on where you live. We will also be able to assign weighting to our tiers, so that you need not necessarily be taxed on the full pledge if the taxable reward is only a fraction of it.
Again, this will all go into effect on July 1st. Patreon will make its general announcement on June 1st, but if you want to learn more now, you can review their FAQ on the subject.
That was a lot to digest! In short, it sucks, but not everyone will be impacted, and us creators will make sure those who are will pay as little as they have to. I'm still wrapping my head around this development too, but feel free to ask if you have any questions, and I'll do my best to answer!
I'd intended to post about Baird's this week, but figured this announcement took precedent. Baird's will be next! In the meantime, for all of you who made it to the end, here is a sneak peek at the new third minigame in Changeling Tale...
(spoilers below!)
Comments (16)
Will this be dropped into Chapter 3?
It will be, once the Grace 3 chapter update is finalized this should be in as well :B
As I understand it, the Patreon team doesn't want to pay taxes. So they do everything to make someone pay, but not them. In 2018 (if I am not mistaken), they tried to do the same. CREATORS vs PATREON. It was a glorious battle where the creators won. Patreon understand that patrons and creators feed them. But they also want to shove taxes on someone. The main question is: Will riot happen again? Upd: Then they wanted to shift the tax to the creators, now they want to shift the tax to the patrons. I wonder if the petition will help?
I know in my state (PA), sales tax applied to a great many things, and it's always paid by the end consumer. I pay sales tax on Amazon purchases, and I expect things will be no different here on Patreon. Depending on your state or country, your mileage may vary.
Surprisingly, my state is not on the list, guess some good had to come out of this sweltering state, aye? Regardless, unfortunate to those that are affected, glad Patreon is giving creators some control over it though, would hate for sales tax to not only affect people who are already tight on budget, but also, in turn, affect the funding of projects like this one, and the many others that look to Patreon as a leg up. But some absolutely great news out of all of this, scratchies! Who's a good Jessie, you are!
Yeah, the timing on this is less than ideal for sure. If people need to cut back on their pledges, I totally understand! We may have reached the pinnacle of gaming with werewolf bellyscratches : )
Bad news; taxes Good news; SCRATCHES!
I bet Jessie can give great backscratches now.
Here in México just aply a new law about VAT to all online services: Netflix, Spotify, etc. Patreon included. But is not clear if going to affect creators or patreoner When I see this post I think Mexico will be on that list, but no...hmmm
If the law is new, Patreon will probably update its list accordingly when the law goes into effect, to keep current with regulations ^^
Glad to see I am not the only one from Ohio...and now I don't have to wonder if I will be, but I amnot gonna worry either, because I will continue to support the games I love!
Thanks Scott, we appreciate it!
Cuddle-Simulator nice😁 I'am from Germany so I will be Not taxed again, correct? Even when I will support this project further, come whatever may.
Thanks! Yes, that's correct-- Patreon has already been applying EU VAT for some time.
I already looked at the affected states, and Ohio is one of them. I remember when Spotify started collecting sales tax in my state, so taxing digital goods on Patreon is no surprise.
It was nice while it lasted! ^^;