Context:
http://www.kotaku.com.au/2015/05/joe-hockey-confirms-that-au…
What do you guys think? Many of us don't even buy our games from steam so is this tax a big issue for us gamers?
Australian Tax on Steam Games
watty on 11/05/2015 - 18:05
Last edited 11/05/2015 - 18:06
Last edited 11/05/2015 - 18:06
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Really? I'd think there's heaps of Aussie gamers buying from Steam…especially during the sales!
I think GST on USD priced games is dodgy, so it'll be interesting to see what happens here.
AAA games from the likes of 2K, Activision, Bethesda etc. have already applied the Australia Tax on them, just that at the moment, publishers (and to some extent, Valve being the distributor) pocket the extra profit made due to the unfavourable exchange rate. With the introduction of the $AU (required to implement GST), the likelihood is that these games will simply switch currencies and leave their current price as it is.
Why? Because that is the price set by the publisher and it is exactly the same price that EB Games has, only currently Steam is in $US and EB is in $AU. To provide an example:
- Civilization: Beyond Earth is $AU 89.95 at EB Games and $US 89.99 on Steam. Considering 2K is the one who set the price for the game, it would be madness for 2K to increase the price above the EB Games price. The only reason for it currently being worse on Steam than EB is because of the exchange rate difference between the two currencies.
However, for games which are fairly priced on Steam at the moment (equal pricing with the US Store), the likelihood is one of two options:
- If any physical retailer stocks that game, there will be pressure to increase their price to match the physical retailer's price (eg. EB or JB).
- If there is no physical retailer that stocks that game, the price of the game is either likely to go up slightly (publishers passing on the 10% cost to customers) or not go up at all (publishers absorbing the 10% cost).
Seems tax will be not just on games, but on all sorts of things Australians buy online.
While not entirely opposed to the idea of sales tax on online purchases, this is in effect a tax increase and will unfairly hit those on lower incomes the hardest. I hope the government compensates lower income households for this effective GST increase, as was done when the GST was originally introduced, but unfortunately haven't heard anything from them so far to suggest they will.
again, i'm not opposed to this. why hasnt this been an issue with sony psn, xbla and itunes etc.
steam took a shortcut
The government introducing something that will hit low income earners the hardest
Wow, what a new concept. It's almost a little bit like everything they ever do.
If I set up a new Steam account using my VPN, then add funds via a Steam Gift Card. Can I then gift games back to my normal Australian Steam account?
I don't see why not.
Valve did implement region-locked gifting a few months ago. I think this only affects certain areas of Asia and Russia for now but I'm not sure if what you want to do will work in the long run. YMMV I guess.
I'm also not sure if using a VPN will bypass much, even if it does you will likely get banned for purchasing games outside of your region (which has happened in the past).
Confirmed starting in July with everything else
https://www.kotaku.com.au/2017/02/steam-games-are-getting-10…considering we still havent got AU pricing this is so bs,
Thank goodness theres a steam sale usually end of June, just gunna buy bunch of things to spite them lol
How exactly do they expect to enforce and collect this tax from non-Australian entities like Valve?
I'm sure they can ask nicely, but I think the answer might be no.
While I want companies to pay their way, I kind of hope they do say no. They're not based here, and have no obligation to do it. It would be good to see more companies to stand up for consumers rather than just cave into governments.