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.
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.
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… :)
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.
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?
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.
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.
Please, take a Steam game in the US store (not VAT in many states), then take the same game in the EU store (VAT from every country, but depends on the country).
Compare the prices.
Games have a perceived price to the end user. Selling above that price is unwise. Publishers know this (most of them, anyway).
I don’t know about Australia, but the rationale for NZ Custom on not charging import with GST below certain threshold (GST $60 or below gets a free pass) is because the actual money collected doesn’t cover (enough) the cost of enforcing GST, i.e.an operational issue, too small fish to fry etc. I’m assuming Australia operates on similar basis, just with a different collection threshold.
The point is, there is no exception to GST, every good and service purchased in theory is covered, as long as someone in NZ pays for it. The enforcement, however, is selective. (Which is why there is a big fuss on creating GST exemption category e.g. fresh vege or female sanitation product, it is not selective enforcement but real GST exemption. Critics say exemption is a slippery slope, and destroys the rationale of GST as a simple tax, i.e. no ifs or buts. I think they have a point. The subsidy to fresh vege etc. should come from somewhere else, not from GST exemption.)
Yes we have been enjoying tax free purchase for a looooong time on Steam, and Valve et. al. have unfairly profited from it, compared with local retailers (even local online retailers). This is clearly the right move.
So here’s a little pic made from that site, showing the major publishers on Steam and the regional pricing of all their games combined, converted back to US dollars for each region. The price is calculated from games present in the US store that are also on the other stores: