Sad trombone.
[quote]
The VAT tax amount will be included in the advertised price of your product, just like VAT is currently treated in the EU. This means the customer will pay the price displayed on the storefront, and the tax will be separated out afterwards.[/quote]
That sucks to hear, does Australia have region restrictions on games like Russia?
I can’t see any benefit to buying a game in Australia if you can get it gifted to you for far less.
Still true.
Not sure it’s Valve’s doing.
It’s our Government threatening to use the site-blocking powers they promised would only be for combating piracy and child exploitation to block sites that don’t charge AU citizens GST. So expect more things to get even more expensive here come July.
That’s so terrible I am sure it’s what happened, is there any hard info on this even just rumours?
Regional pricing is different from GST isn’t it? Regional pricing is the publisher eye gouging, GST is just like normal business paying tax for doing business (as opposed to not paying).
I don’t know how the Aussie government can twist Gabe’s arm to do this (immovable object vs. unstoppable force???), but if GST comes to NZ on Steam I have no problem with it. I pay GST every time I buy from e.g. JB Hi Fi, why not online operating locally as well? It may finally means getting online stores like Steam to pay proper company tax is so much easier because they have a record of their sales.
And it may stop me from buying SO MANY GAMES I DON’T PLAY ON STEAM.
Well, I wouldn’t say hard info, as the source is anonymous
At least you in NZ have local currency on your store. We also have to pay currency conversion fees from US dollars, as well as the ‘Australia Tax’, and now the Goods and Services Tax… :)
We pay for regional pricing as well, e.g.:
Yes it is available in NZD but most of the time it is a straight forward conversation from USD. E.g. a $5 USD title would cost like $6 NZD.
RIP Steam.
TBH, I think this is inevitable fallout from the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission case against Valve last year that basically found that as Valve operate infrastructure in Australia and make representations to Australian customers that they in turn engage in conduct in Australia and as such sure as hell aren’t exempt from Australian consumer protection law.
So, thank Australia for Steam’s refund policy, but seems like we are going to get screwed out of the deal as this seems like low hanging fruit for the government to consequently go after as a test case to force online retailers to collect GST. Obviously nobody really cares about the ‘tiny’ gaming industry and Valve aren’t so big that they’d care to enter into protracted legal battles over this, particularly when they demonstrably offer regional pricing and collect taxes in other regions (VAT). It’s not like the government is instead going after Amazon on this same issue!
Anyway, I predict this will have little effect on street price of Steam games. I think market pressures will more or less force Valve and the publishers will wear this out of their already inflated Australian margins. If not, well there are plenty of other outlets for Steam keys.
Now, I’ll hold my breath waiting for the ACCC to investigate said regional price gouging Valve and the various publishers engage in over here.
Honestly, it’s not good that vat isn’t charged from steam, it’s giving them a very unfair competetive edge, lots of countries will follow suit soon.
I don’t know, I could see this happening for AAA games with regional pricing, where we’d pay (yet never do as who would) $80-$90 USD. But if you were an indie developer, why would you absorb 10% when your game isn’t even for sale on in-store shelves and you don’t care if your customers purchase the game from steam or GMG or wherever?
Hmm, you raise a valid point.
Ehh, requiring overseas retailers to charge GST on sub$1,000 purchases has been kicking around for a long time. And the whole point of it is to get retailers who have no presence in Australia at all (other than customers) to remit this GST payment to the Australian Government. It’s always been put off because the costs of enforcement exceeded the projected tax collected. But now we have a centre right government under threat from far right populists who don’t have many other ideas on what economic reform should look like - so we get these Mickey Mouse policies that generate headlines but do nothing for the budget.
This doesn’t mean what you guys think it means.
Can you elaborate? Has Valve sent some communication to dev’s/publishers on the matter?
Enter on the EU steam store and look how VAT is/has been treated there for a good while. I’m unwilling to elaborate more just to be on the cautious side.
Looks like a bunch of other countries are going to get tax hikes too.
[quote]
March 2017:
Switzerland 8%
South Korea 10%
Japan 8%
New Zealand 15%
Iceland 24%
South Africa 14%
India 15%
April 2017:
Serbia 20%
May 2017:
Taiwan 5%
July 2017:
Australia 10%[/quote]
At this rate people in Australia will have to wait for a 50% off sale, just to be able to pay the MSRP prices we do in America.
It’s why I buy very little on Steam these days that isn’t >=60% off