Patreon Announcement & New Minigame Sneak Peek (Patreon)
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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!)