Games in New Zealand are actually ~15% cheaper by default now that the store uses NZD, which bodes well for AUD. But, yeah, larger publishers tend to ignore the recommended pricing and apply the Kiwi/Aussie Tax.
-
Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.
Australians may face 10% tax on Steam transactions
- Thread starter Maximo
- Start date
Games in New Zealand are actually ~15% cheaper by default now that the store uses NZD, which bodes well for AUD. But, yeah, larger publishers tend to ignore the recommended pricing and apply the Kiwi/Aussie Tax.
TheQuickBrownFox
Member
The GST is already applied to purchases from the MS storefront.
lowhighkang_LHK
Member
Thats unfortunate. Hopefully these taxes are put to good use for social assistance programs.
But man living in Las Vegas is great. We don't even pay state tax here. Guess I never realized how lucky I was.
But man living in Las Vegas is great. We don't even pay state tax here. Guess I never realized how lucky I was.
GST is being imposed because
TheQuickBrownFox
Member
Not quite. It is exactly as posted in the OP, it's the "Netflix Tax". - it was passed into law last year, and comes into effect 1 July.
https://www.legislation.gov.au/Details/C2016A00052
AcademicSaucer
Member
primasaurus
Member
We should all pay our taxes, who the hell do you think you are not paying it, don't give a toss for your country and the others living there then bugger off
Ah, right.
I look forward to seeing activision titles costing $160usd because activision keeps forgettting they're charging usd not AUD...
Looks like getting steam keys is going to be the only way to get reasonable prices by the end of the year
They don't forget they're charging USD. They just don't give a shit.
Of course you should. But until recently GST wasn't payable on purchases made outside of Australia. Payment of GST is still going to be basically voluntary anyway because the Australian Government has no mechanism to force companies operating outside of Australia to pay the tax. For physical goods they can be stopped by customs, there's nothing they can do for intangibles though.
Steam purchases in Aus cost the same as US purchases except for currency conversion costs charged by your banks (all prices are displayed in USD) so Steam games aren't anymore expensive here than elsewhere. I do imagine though that because of this the entire 10% tax will be passed on to the consumer ( as usually the economic incidence is split between the supplier and consumer).
I'd wager Valve is now playing by the rules in other countries because it doesn't want to risk another lengthy legal tiff that it'd likely lose.
It's up to publishers to adjust their prices to account for the tax, but you can bet that the likes of Activision and Ubisoft will be quick to act.
Do you think they even give a crap? They're still not complying with the outcome of the court case they lost dictating they must comply with Australian consumer laws. They're still refusing refunds on broken games because they're outside their (illegal in Australia) refund window.
Last_colossi
Member
Well I won't ever buy another game directly from steam unless this law is scrapped sometime in the future.
Neolombax
Member
That sucks...the physical games there sell slightly pricier if I'm not mistaken. And now they want to charge for Steam games?
This reminds me back when the Ozzies didn't have an "R" classification for games, to the point that they censored stuff out of GTA4. I was so bummed out when I got that game on the PS3 while I was studying there. What is with the Ozzie politicians and video games?
This reminds me back when the Ozzies didn't have an "R" classification for games, to the point that they censored stuff out of GTA4. I was so bummed out when I got that game on the PS3 while I was studying there. What is with the Ozzie politicians and video games?
Are people citing that when submitting their requests? I mean, it shouldn't fall on to customers to know the law, but it can and has made a difference in the past. Come to think of it, in 12 hours' time the AU store should be updated with the judgement from the ACCC as per the order.
Edit: Actually, it was supposed to be updated yesterday.
That would mean setting up a different price structure for the Australian market instead of presenting US prices (which is possible and fairly easy to do I imagine, unless they do it already and I am not aware of it).
Publishers can set country-specific prices.
Yes, if they're in such a state.
Mikeybycrikey
Neo Member
Doom here is shown as $80usd in aus. $60usd in us. That's a different price. (Doom being a random example) https://www.steamprices.com/au/s/3jmr1R?p=1
OK So somethings have been glossed over in both the coverage and also peoples responses to this.
First of all, Steam currently sells games to Australians with regional pricing, which means they are basically an Australian store, which means they should damn well be including GST like every other Australian store they compete with (You already pay GST at EB/JB/etc). We are not treated the same as US customers, Doom is 80 USD for Australians for example.
Secondly I really hope a switch to treating Australia like a real region and paying taxes properly means we can move away from paying in USD here, with the way most banks and credit cards work this usually means you pay an extra 10+% in poor currency conversion rates and also bank fees (Less with specialized CC's of course, which I use and suggest to anyone who travels).
Third if you ever turned over more than 75k/year in sales to Australians you should already be registered for and paying GST according to the ATO, you also needed to be registered for GST if you ever received a federal grant which I did, so this actually evens things up between who played it safe and registered and those who thought GST didn't apply to them.
I'm not saying it won't suck if prices go up, though we really won't know if that's the case until closer to the day the switch happens, all I'm saying is that an Australian store (Which Steam undeniable is since it knows who its Australian customers are and gives them regional pricing) should definitely include GST.
First of all, Steam currently sells games to Australians with regional pricing, which means they are basically an Australian store, which means they should damn well be including GST like every other Australian store they compete with (You already pay GST at EB/JB/etc). We are not treated the same as US customers, Doom is 80 USD for Australians for example.
Secondly I really hope a switch to treating Australia like a real region and paying taxes properly means we can move away from paying in USD here, with the way most banks and credit cards work this usually means you pay an extra 10+% in poor currency conversion rates and also bank fees (Less with specialized CC's of course, which I use and suggest to anyone who travels).
Third if you ever turned over more than 75k/year in sales to Australians you should already be registered for and paying GST according to the ATO, you also needed to be registered for GST if you ever received a federal grant which I did, so this actually evens things up between who played it safe and registered and those who thought GST didn't apply to them.
I'm not saying it won't suck if prices go up, though we really won't know if that's the case until closer to the day the switch happens, all I'm saying is that an Australian store (Which Steam undeniable is since it knows who its Australian customers are and gives them regional pricing) should definitely include GST.
Modern Warfare 2 was USD$89.99 for over four years. I was almost a little disappointed when Acti finally dropped the price in 2014.
Probably not....I'll definitely remember to do so when I make future requests, it was a friend that has been denied when he tried to refund No Man's Sky because he'd played more than 2 hours.
TheQuickBrownFox
Member
Yes and no. Yes, that I don't believe they have any mechanism to force a company to pay, No its not basically voluntary, it does however only impact companies that have a turnover of $75K (AUD) or more.
More than happy to be fact checked, but I believe a penalty that was discussed would be to disable access to the store via that DNS blocking or using AU credit cards.
bitbydeath
Member
So this will be on top of the existing 30% markup we already get?
What BS.
What BS.
Please explain to me why Steam prices shouldn't have to include GST but if I buy the game from JB Hifi that hat to include GST.
ScientificPizza
Banned
This fucking SUCKS
We already get fucked over on exchange rates on Steam
We already get fucked over on exchange rates on Steam
We're not talking about adding 10% to all game prices, we're talking about all game prices including GST, like they should, because we are being sold games as Australians with regional pricing.
It's up to the people selling those games to then price them accordingly, but there's zero reason why Steam shouldn't include GST just like every other Australian store is legally obligated to. Right now t hey can essentially undercut the competition by not paying tax.
TheQuickBrownFox
Member
Do you think they would turn over more than $75k AUD a financial year?
If yes, then they too will need to add 10% GST to their prices.
CD Keys is a garage operation -- it resells keys taken from physical stock purchased in bulk. While it may apply a 10% tax come July (I'm of two minds about that happening), I sincerely doubt it'd actually forward that money on unless the government took measures to prevent it from selling to Australian customers.
Not true for most AAA games. Just having a quick look now - Fallout 4 is USD $80, GTA 5 is USD $75.
excelsiorlef
Member
Taxes like this are the easiest way to suss out who talks the talk and who walks the walk in terms of actually wanting to work towards fixing things in their given country (and by that I mean also maintaining things like the social safety net, infrastructure and whatever)
It is fascinating to see how often talks of left wing economic policies go straight out the window when part of that means say paying a few extra dollars on a video game...
Like I get that the games are seemingly over priced but that's not the government that's the game companies... So no the government is not making you resort to grey market or piracy....
Similar threads
- Locked