Patreon update - Sales tax and Patreon cost (Patreon)

Hello everyone and welcome to a quick update in regards to Patreon.

 

I wanted to give you an update on some changes that we’ll be seeing which may affect some of your pledges. Due to new laws passing in several countries and US states, Patreon was required to start charging sales tax from 1st of June.

Less than half of all patrons will be charged sales tax, and for most, the amount will be very small. For example, sales tax rates in the US range from 4% to 11%, so on a $5 pledge, that would be between 20 cents and 55 cents. 

Whether or not you will be charged sales tax depends on your location, and what is considered taxable there. Not every pledge is taxable, not all benefits are taxable in every location, and sometimes only a fraction of a pledge will be taxable. The money that Patreon collects as a result of these laws are paid directly to local governments.

Now, as scary as it sounds, it's not actually that scary for us, as majority of the services you get by becoming my Patron don't fall under sales tax. Except Uranium tier. Now, I'd like you to know exactly how much money we are getting for that tier, and how much money an hour it turns out to be.

After Patreon cut and all the costs, from $200 donation we were only getting $151. The tier promises 20 hours of work put towards your mod, which equals to about $7.55 an hour - just 5 cents more than US minimum wage. Not every programmer works for so little, and surely not every artist, therefore a lot of the work we are essentially doing for free. Now, with sales tax, a further 11% will be taken from the $151. This a $200 donation only gives us $135 ($6.75/h) to work with.

It is slowly becoming impossible to work for 20 hours a month for that amount of money. Some of you might think this is a hobby and it shouldn't be about money - you're right. But if I can spend 20 hours a month making a mod for somebody else for less than minimum wage, or spend extra 20 hours a month at a normal job, I'd rather choose the latter simply because we also have families and expenses.

I have decided that several steps will need to be taken to make sure we can pay a fair wage to our programmers. Whilst Uranium tier will remain at $200 dollars, it's benefits will change. You will no longer be allowed to hire us for 20 hours - instead, we will add an addition of your choice to one of our mods, or if such a mod doesn't exist, we will make a mod specifically for this addition. Additions will most likely include: New animals (want a new cat or dog breed? A new animal for one of our existing modules?), New hairstyles, New weapons, New apparel etc. We will iron out the details when I get around to it.

Existing Uranium tier Patrons are allowed to stay subscribed to uranium tier and will still get the 20 hours of modding work indefinitely until their current projects finish.

I will be adding a new tier ($300) that will allow you to hire us for 20 hours a month :)

So yeah, this is the outline of the changes I see coming to effect in the next 2 months. We will see how it goes. Thanks for understanding!