egscomics
patreon
Sales Tax
🕑 Added 2020-06-27 03:40:57 +0000 UTCStarting July 1st, there might be some sales tax applied for some patrons.
I haven't been sure what to say about this myself, and to be honest, it kept slipping my mind. Patreon said it would be sending out e-mails about this on its own, so I'm hoping this is old news, but I'm sorry I didn't send something like this out sooner.
I don't know whether any of my tiers are likely to be subject to sales tax anywhere. When setting up the tiers, I basically had to choose from options that best describe what they offer, like "access to polls".
Whether or not the options I've selected will get taxed anywhere is unknown to me. I don't know if I should change anything because I set things as what seemed most accurate to me, and I don't know what any changes would do.
Below is basically a form letter Patreon provided that I've edited to be a bit more to the point. A link to more information and customer service are at the bottom of it:
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Due to new laws passing in several countries and US states, Patreon will be required to start charging sales tax on some pledges starting July 1st.
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.
If you’re in a location where sales tax will be required, you should have received an email from Patreon with more information.
If you have questions, you should be able to find answers here. If you still have questions, the best place to get an answer is from Patreon’s customer support team, here.
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Again, I'm sorry I didn't send something out about this sooner. I'm going to schedule a follow-up post for Monday as a reminder.
Thank you all for your support. EGS keeps going because of you.
Comments
Frédéric B.
Yeah, at first it was only new pledges, then a few months ago it started applying to existing pledges as well.
Joachim
And we have to pay sales tax for everything, even if we get nothing.
David Howe
I'm just hoping they don't try to charge us twice - I believe the us system charges government and state taxes separately....
Hans Peter Bak
I'm from Europe. We have been paying sales tax for quite a while now.....
Raphaël
Same here. I got the email from Patreon, and I got emails from the creators mostly along the lines "not sure what I'm doing here, please I mean no harm" ... and I'm sure I am not alone in saying we believe you're doing your best. I'd be surprised if you had more insight as a creator after the change (except by polling your subscribers) but what do I know. As for Patreon not giving you or us more details is probably because the tax code is complicated, especially when you factor in multiple state/countries and cross-interactions. Their help page is fairly detailed overall.
Brooks Moses
FWIW, I have received a bunch of notifications about this, from probably half of the people I support on Patreon. And I think at least one from Patreon itself too. Which is to say that, at least in my case, I've been notified a lot ... but you're far from the only person who hadn't sent anything. The content of all the messages from creators has been similarly "I'm not really sure what this means for my stuff in practice, but I'm letting you know?" I feel like maybe Patreon could have been a little bit clearer about this ahead of time, rather than making it a "you'll find out when you pay on July 1st!" surprise thing, but eh. This area of law is new enough that maybe they're hedging on having one of their lawyers popping up on the 30th saying, "Well, actually, that thing we said...."
Dan Shive
None of the art I'm making now is exclusive, but honestly, I read it all as "probably not, but could be"
nightpool
my understanding is that "early access" and "access to polls" are generally not taxable items but "exclusive downloadable art" might be in some places. obviously though IANAL and all my info comes from patreon's support page on the issue. https://support.patreon.com/hc/en-us/articles/360043054911-New-Sales-Tax-Requirements-effective-July-1st-2020
TwoRavens
I live in a state with no sales tax, thankfully. But I'd pay it even were that not the case.
AstroChaos
Ahh, the only two true constants in the universe... Death and Taxes.
