Australians may face 10% tax fee for steam sales.

[Biased Opinion]

Wow Australians, yall need to handle your sh*t. Get those cranky old geezers out of there.

Dont worry about that, we got One Term Tony up in here and the next federal election is next year.

[Ertman]

Is this just another irrational argument where the government is trying to make sure GST is being paid on the transactions of goods and services involving it's citizens? It kinda sounds like it is. I get it, it sucks to pay taxes or even just more for anything in general.

Should they make a new tax? No. Should they enforce fairness in the current tax system including online sales? Probably.

The gorvernent will want it's taxes and if making those who can buy more pay more won't work for you than other solutions that could become a thing...

-Charge a flat tax on Internet services regardless of purchases made or not. (similar to a tv tax in Britain)

-Place increased tarriffs/taxes computer equipment, whether it not it will be used for the purchases of online sales or services.

-Give up to the libertarians, fold the government and watch Australia turn into a real Mad Max country. Ok the this one is a joke.

[Trik'Stari]

Like the Capital gains tax, you earn money on a rental property, and pay the government some of that in taxes, then when you go to sell the house, they take a massive chuck of what you sold it for. *sigh* I really want a face to face talk with the assholes. Granted there are some good people, but quite simply there are way too many assholes in power.

That I don't necessarily mind, because it's a repeat income (at least the rent paid to you, selling it, that would be sales tax, one time). Whereas paying "property tax" on a house you own and live in...is just a tax on having something, and in the end it means you can never truly "own" your house and property, because if you don't pay that tax? "get out of your house, it's somehow ours now".

[AmirMC]

Everyone always makes Australians out to be so tough, but i'll seriously cri everteim i turn on compooter without mi steam gamez.

[The Benjamins]

If I handed you an IOU and said it's worth something, I don't know what, would you take me seriously? Of course not. If I gave you an IOU promising you an ounce of gold that I'm safekeeping, would you take that more seriously?

 

It's not a false sense of security, there are still experts that advise the American dollar go back onto the gold standard, or at least a sort of precious metal standard.

 

if you go in debt you can pay the IOU no matter what it is, or if you die. that is why it is a false sense of security. the "backed by gold" is for if the economy goes bad, but if that happens the government will not have enough power/gold to give everyone.  or if the government goes away for any reason the "backed by" promise also goes away. it is supposed to be insurance when "shit goes down" but when it does the insurance itself can fade away too.

 

it is like a bank saying they insure your funds in the bank. they can do it too a point but they can not %100 reliably insure it all.

 

I would never trust a IOU, its never %100 safe.

 

on the original question, both IOU are the same in my view, because you said "I got it in gold in my safe" does not make your IOU any more reliable. 

[mr moose]

Govern the country - Not relevant to international digital purchases.

Australian consumer law - Not relevant to international digital purchases.

Costs and taxes for the internet - Already included in our bills.

Maintain society - Taxed through literally every possible avenue already.

 

Unless you can explain to me how the Australian government is losing money somewhere on steam sales, you can't possibly argue in favour a tax and be reasonable. It isn't a fallacy, unless you can show me the logical error in my reasoning. My argument is deductively valid. I'm not appealing to red herrings or equivocating definitions.

 

I think you need to learn how the economy and governance works.  What you are proposing is a complete fallacy,  how do you pay for steam games? do you have some magical funds transfer system that doesn't go through a financial institute that is governed by Australian law? 

 

People need to get with the program, just because a product is digital does not make it immune from all the same economic rules and regulations as a physical product.  If you sell something in Australia it is subject to Australian Law. If you sell a digital product in Australia. regardless of where it comes from, it is still covered by mandatory warranty, fair trade practices, and tax law.  All these laws cost money to provide, maintain and enforce.  That's why we have a GST.  Other wise the cost of these things would have to come out of income tax, which means people on low incomes would be paying more tax to cover the cost of the ACCC (who has taken valve to court)   Which only benefits those who buy steam games.

 

Now do you understand why how this costs the government and ultimately who benefits from it?

[mr moose]

Yes but the tax is for everything. We should not need to pay 10% more for netflix of which is not very good with our speed or what we can get on netflix 

 

It doesn't work that way, the GST is a tax that is applied to all non essential (and some essential)  goods and services.  Being a poor service doesn't exempt it.

 

See above post for rational behind taxes like the GST.

 

EDIT: also I'd like a link to the claim that the government called the internet a phase, sounds like it might have been taken out of context (but with abbot you never know).

[imthewalrus]

In Colombia ( a country I lived in for a good amount of time ), the tax was around 16% for most luxuries including online games. Thank the walrus God here in Walrusland we don't have taxes. 

[Geldar]

In a bid to raise revenue, the conservative Australian government has moved to place a 10% tax on anything purchased from the steam store. This comes on the back of the wildly unpopular "Australia tax" which aims to capatilise on the popularity of online digital games and media sales. (irrespective of the fact that we already pay some of the highest fees in the world, for internet and electricity).

This currently has support from the head government as well as the oppostion, but Valve have not commented on whether they will support this action, as of yet. (We all know how much they hate anyone undercutting their profits, especially those pesky game developers). However, it is rumoured that this will be an automatic deduction applied specifically through financial institutions for anything considered as a "luxury" digital item.

 

Australia already pay some of the highest prices for video games, often around 10-30% per USD, (Not including conversion rates).

This is a sad day indeed, for anyone from the (not so) great southern land.

All i can say, is that i hope Lord Gaben shows mercy on us all.

 

Source: http://www.pcgamer.com/australians-may-face-10-tax-fee-for-steam-transactions/

Background reading for video game prices in Australia: http://www.kotaku.com.au/2010/11/why-do-videogames-cost-so-much/

 

This is the most over sensationalised news story ever. Their only extending the current GST (same as the VAT for Europeans) onto digital products like steam, itunes, google play, netflix etc etc. 

 

Its definitely not a steam tax. 

[Erina_the_Cute]

Not sure how many actual Australians are posting here but a bit of insight;

• The countries biggest industry is mining of coal and ore, that industry pays little to no (yes a multi billion dollar industry that pays NO tax) (
  to show you just how bad it is)
• We do, compared to for example the U.S.A. Makes more per year per person. I personally work only part time and make the equivalent of a full 40+ hour/week actually working their asses of to get by average person in America. (To compare full time ave per capita income in Aus is 67000$ = 53000$ US. Ave per capita income in US is ~$28000 US with allowance for horrid variance dependant on one's race or gender).
• To that former point. Cost of living to income earned is FAR better in Australia.

Listen... I am not trying to turn this into Aus vs The World but asides from electing Tony Abbott and stopping Fiber internet. For the fact I enjoy stupidly affordable healthcare (a massive deal for many), next to no gun violence and confidence that being unemployed wont make me homeless, ill take a still relatively not horribly priced tech industry. I admit it SHOULDNT be happening, but in the scheme of things I'll take it.

[Albatross]

Poor Australia.   I just don't see why they don't fight the power like they did the Emus.

[infamous_last]

The average aus wage is 50% higher than the us wage

Simplistic statement that ignores the gaping difference in tax rates.

[Virus__]

and to add insult to injury we are still charged in USD when Valve told us we would be paying AUD what 2 years ago? I'm over the way we're treated for digital distribution here in this country. The only service I don't feel I am being ripped off by is Netflix >_>

[PlayModeOn]

This is why I only buy CD keys, pesky taxes....

[AmirMC]

Poor Australia.   I just don't see why they don't fight the power like they did the Emus.

 

The Emus were smart enough to realise that they were less intelligent.

Check out our prime minister giving credit to a member of his backbench for "virtually inventing the internet". Smh...

[Pepsiman]

You guys in Australia need to move out before it's too late. The land of stupidity, I like to call it. It will rub off on you eventually if you let the cronies that run Australia control your life.

[linuxfan66]

I honestly thought steam already payed gst, and chances are itunes will transparently pay gst without changing prices at al since they are stil making plenty of profit. I dont think gst is an apocalyptic thing on digital purchases as it will just become transparent and noone will care again. I rather have that than a broke country.

[AmirMC]

I honestly thought steam already payed gst, and chances are itunes will transparently pay gst without changing prices at al since they are stil making plenty of profit. I dont think gst is an apocalyptic thing on digital purchases as it will just become transparent and noone will care again. I rather have that than a broke country.

 

There are many things that should come before this though, such as imposing tax thresholds on churches or lowering the income of our politicians. I wouldn't be opposed to the taxes, if it actually went to an honourable cause instead of just pulling the country out of debt that was incurred through political negligence.

[Ertman]

There are many things that should come before this though, such as imposing tax thresholds on churches or lowering the income of our politicians. I wouldn't be opposed to the taxes, if it actually went to an honourable cause instead of just pulling the country out of debt that was incurred through political negligence.

Thats the struggle with taxes. No one wants to see tax revenue squandered and everyone is self interested. No one minds taxes if it pays for things they personally and directly (which ignores a great deal of things) have no interest in.

 

I fail to see how imposing new taxes (cause that will go over well) or lowering politicians income (drop in bucket, large downsides), make more rational sense then applying existing tax law to Australians participating in the online exchange of goods and services. Its literally just a shift in where the transaction is taking place (physical to digital), not a whole new marketplace/goods and service exchanging paradigm. This is all predicated on the idea that they are just applying the current GST, and not creating a whole separate tax just for online sales, unless that is a legal requirement for enforcing such an application due to legal complications.

[mr moose]

Thats the struggle with taxes. No one wants to see tax revenue squandered and everyone is self interested. No one minds taxes if it pays for things they personally and directly (which ignores a great deal of things) have no interest in.

 

I fail to see how imposing new taxes (cause that will go over well) or lowering politicians income (drop in bucket, large downsides), make more rational sense then applying existing tax law to Australians participating in the online exchange of goods and services. Its literally just a shift in where the transaction is taking place (physical to digital), not a whole new marketplace/goods and service exchanging paradigm. This is all predicated on the idea that they are just applying the current GST, and not creating a whole separate tax just for online sales, unless that is a legal requirement for enforcing such an application due to legal complications.

 

That's pretty much it in  a nutshell,  they are simply updating the tax to account for shifts in the industry.   The thing that scares me is how many people are whinging about how bad our "old cronies" government is not realizing that it is no different from the last government or the one before it.  The fact they have no understanding of the tax system or even the effects and relevance of it on the average consumer/citizen.   They want their consumer affairs advocate, they want their consumer protection laws but they are not willing to pay a tax to fund it.  Nothing is free.

 

 

The Emus were smart enough to realise that they were less intelligent.

Check out our prime minister giving credit to a member of his backbench for "virtually inventing the internet". Smh...

 

What would you rather, a walking verbal fuck up or a feminazi that screams misogyny every time someone questions her policies/ability to be the PM?

[Totallycasual]

 

 

 

 

What would you rather, a walking verbal fuck up or a feminazi that screams misogyny every time someone questions her policies/ability to be the PM?

 

I would prefer Rudd, that conniving bitch and her faceless backers essentially removed our democratically elected leader with backdoor deals and no input from the Australian public. That crap should never have happened, i don't think Abbot would even be in power now if it wasn't for the turmoil in the Labor Party at the time. 

[AmirMC]

I would prefer Rudd, that conniving bitch and her faceless backers essentially removed our democratically elected leader with backdoor deals and no input from the Australian public. That crap should never have happened, i don't think Abbot would even be in power now if it wasn't for the turmoil in the Labor Party at the time.

I agree, Gilliard seemed to take the political fall for the carbon tax, then the Labour Party reintroduced Rudd in the hope of being Re-elected. They kinda shot themselves in the foot.

[mr moose]

I would prefer Rudd, that conniving bitch and her faceless backers essentially removed our democratically elected leader with backdoor deals and no input from the Australian public. That crap should never have happened, i don't think Abbot would even be in power now if it wasn't for the turmoil in the Labor Party at the time. 

 

At least his party was elected by the people with him at the helm.  Although I did not like the Rudd money and the insulation debacle, I do  However acknowledge there are people who think they were great ideas and they were elected to run the country.

[mr moose]

Let's dodge a 10% tax by paying $5 just for your VPNs which is a minimum 33% extra if you go with the most expensive netflix, and 55% if you go with the cheap plan. Sounds legit!!

http://www.bestvpnprovider.com/how-to-avoid-steam-tax-in-australia/

A VPN is a good way to dodge this crap without resorting to outright theft. After all, the people making movies and TV shows aren't imposing this stupid tax.

 

Right until content providers like netflix ban VPN's then we have vpn accounts that cost and payed subscriptions to overseas streaming services we cant access. Also a VPN won;t help with steam unless you lie to steam and tell them you are in the US.

[SirPaul]

Here is the issue with the Australian government. They are super annoyed that everyone is pirating movies, software and games, but the only reason why Australians pirate to much is because everything here already costs so much. Then the government use their logic and instead of making movies, software and games cheaper, to reduce pirating they add more tax to it to make it cost more. Now consumers are stuck, you can now get fined for pirating so people can't do that anymore and now entertainment costs more with the new tax so that you can't buy games without burning a massive hole in you wallet. What's next a new tax for online entertainment like YouTube? To be honest I wouldn't be surprised. Maybe if the government knew what they were doing, they would realize that raising taxes isn't going to fix our debt problem.

 

I would pirate the shit out of Australia if i were you.