Source

(The source is a danish newssite but assuming you use chrome it's translates to English rather well)
Due to changes in EU laws starting 1 January 2015 Valve will be forced to pay taxes in the country the purchase has been made from instead of Luxembourg where their European branch is located, It's not clear if prices will increase since the +-25% higher price we pay should already cover taxes (current tax rate is 3% for valve) but you never know, figured i'd pass this along since noone has posted anything related to this.

9 years ago*

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Really, Steam users from Europe should have stopped buying stuff from Steam years ago, as soon as the $1 = €1 thing was implemented. It's not hard to get something cheaper by trading or from a key reseller like GMG or the various bundle sites turned stores.

9 years ago
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GMG was great, but then they switched to GBP, and the ratio isn't fair.

9 years ago
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I'm sorry, but one full-priced release on Steam os twice as expensive as it is in a retail shop. if the prices go up, a single game will be more than half my rent...

9 years ago
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A year ago 1.30$=1.00€. So we were paying an extra 30%... for a 3% VAT!

9 years ago
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VAT in Luxemburg is 15%, not 3%.

Edit: 3% is for reduced rate for ebooks.

9 years ago
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But there are taxes outside Europe too

9 years ago
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Perfect, people in EU tier 2 are fucked up their assess by Valve/EU. Prices are so fucking big it's unbelievable. Let me give you an example, above minimum wage in Poland is about 1680 PLN which is around 393€, a single triple-A title costs around 40-60€, sometimes even more, do the math yourself. Of course, nobody should buy games when they just came out, only when the game is heavily discounted but still, the prices are not regionally adjusted which piss me off.

9 years ago
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This!

Im too from Poland,and i buy from store only on big discounts,always auctions like Allegro,some trades,bundles,stores etc

9 years ago
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Hi! Hungary here. Minimum wage is around 300 euro in here.

9 years ago
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High-5 Hungary, we are both pretty much fucked up.

9 years ago
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Minimum net wage is actually 1237.20 PLN, 290€ (it will be 1286.16 PLN, 302€ from 2015).

9 years ago
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Most of Steam's EU prices already look like they are absorbing a very thick wedge of of local taxes.

Also market forces and The Bay.

You can only get away with charging so much for a computer game before people cry "foul play". Valve and the publishers of these games may just have to suck this one up...

9 years ago
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Thick wedge? Lol. After you read this: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/eu/11225662/Juncker-defends-Luxembourgs-tax-arrangements-as-legal.html

Relevant quote: "The revelations showed the tiny duchy of Luxembourg gave hundreds of global firms huge tax breaks, sometimes at almost zero rates, including household names such as Pepsi, IKEA and Deutsche Bank." Valve had their EU site in Luxembourg because of these zero tax rates that won't be continued now it turned into scandal. There is no double taxation in EU so 0% in Luxembourg = no tax anywhere in EU. Thay also have super low VAT, sooo...

9 years ago
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I think you've misunderstood atomicwoodchuck: "Most of Steam's EU prices already look like"
He was implying that the prices already seem to contain local taxes, not if they where actually being paid.

9 years ago
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Indeed :)

9 years ago
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time to find my pirate hat

9 years ago
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+1 THIS! xD

9 years ago
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oh cool time to play game that i bought cheaper from ru store xD

9 years ago
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but... why some games in US have a price, eg. 49,99$ and in EU are 49,99€???? € > $ !! -.-

9 years ago
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9 years ago
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That song though

9 years ago
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Because publishers love screwing Europe.

9 years ago
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9 years ago
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i don't think you really thought this through. ^^ if your prices go up, that also affects the discounted games you buy. it's a percentage.

9 years ago
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now they will complain that piracy never dies even they donated billions of $5 games to russians

9 years ago
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LOL

9 years ago
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9 years ago
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But Steam is adding more currencies :P

10 new currencies this year, with more coming early next year.

Pricing is actually done by publishers, not Steam. (Although Steam provides guidelines for regional pricing)

9 years ago
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9 years ago
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9 years ago
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UK? Nope, Steam guideline's doesn't use $1=€1=£1. It's Ubisoft decision. Supposedly there's some contracts with physical sellers to screw steam users, so steam doesn't eat their sales.

9 years ago
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9 years ago
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Ukraine should be getting it's currency on steam early next year. (Publishers can already set prices in hryvnias)

9 years ago
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we have been overpaying for years.. come on now

9 years ago
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Time for you Eurozone folks to find yourself a good Canadian/American friend and open up a Paypal account :P

9 years ago
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I think thats about the VAT and not the tax valve pays itself in Luxembourg...and the VAT in Luxembourg is 15%, in Denmark 25%...so the price increase for danish people would be 8,7 %. For Germans with 19% it would be 3,5%...but this would also result in different prices per country.
So i think, they would raise the EU1 price by 10%, and just pay different VAT by customer location...any bonus...of course is for personal gabe charity...like burgers

9 years ago
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yay im from argentina... already 1 dollar= 9-10 pesos(argentina currency)

9 years ago
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I wonder if Amazon will start cracking down on people overseas buying on the US site

9 years ago
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I wonder how many would get called out on tax fraud (declaring US address to Amazon.com, thus avoiding VAT) if 'EU' took interest on this case.

I'm pretty sure many of you didn't pay taxes... ;)

9 years ago
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hah, I'd probably go bankrupt if that ever was the case :P
I do really hope this doesn't mean other retailers are going take the buyers region serious though, There's barely a site left out there that I don't use hola to save at least 20% or so, and for some reason it works with some, yet is a pain in the ass to get to work on others.

9 years ago
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I dont buy on Steam anyway.

9 years ago
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This affects every EU (and non-EU) site selling to EU :P

Edit: Just to be clear, non-EU part is already in effect since 2003.

9 years ago
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Closed 9 years ago by konyo42.