Requires Billing Address for Purchase with Steam Wallet Funds

[Literally Me]

I am unable to purchase anything with my wallet funds without first inputting a billing address. I have never had to do this before. Is this a recent change and, if possible, how can I go back to just purchasing with wallet funds?

[Darren]

Ursprungligen skrivet av isomorphic_projection:

Ursprungligen skrivet av Matt:

With gift cards, taxes are paid when the gift card is redeemed (used) by the person redeeming it.

Think of a gift card as simply another currency. All you're doing is exchanging your money for "Steam money."

For example, if I exchanged US dollars for Mexican pesos at my bank then used those pesos to buy a cake at the grocery store, I still pay taxes on the cake purchase at the grocery store. The mere fact that I exchanged one currency for another doesn't mean I don't pay taxes.

Yes, then you also have internet protocols, my download region set for the netherlands, meaning tax is in the price of the game. They already have what they need.

Indeed. But Valve needs to know how much of the purchase price to remit.

Given the EU single market rate meaning you have to be charged the same amount as someone in a lower tax rated EU country the actual sale price of the product won't change once they know where in the EU you live (because it can't I am 99.99% sure).

What will change is the tax rate they will be reserving from the price, which will increase to the 21% the Netherlands requires over the minimum 15% the EU does. So they can remit that 21% to the Netherlands Government correctly for your purchase.

[isomorphic_projection]

Ursprungligen skrivet av Matt:

Ursprungligen skrivet av isomorphic_projection:

I bought a steam wallet card in a store. They need to bill the store.

With gift cards, taxes are paid when the gift card is redeemed (used) by the person redeeming it.

Think of a gift card as simply another currency. All you're doing is exchanging your money for "Steam money."

For example, if I exchanged US dollars for Mexican pesos at my bank then used those pesos to buy a cake at the grocery store, I still pay taxes on the cake purchase at the grocery store. The mere fact that I exchanged one currency for another doesn't mean I don't pay taxes.

So what i did, bought in a store and redeemed it. So i already got billed you say now.

[DC-GS]

Ursprungligen skrivet av Darren:

What will change is the tax rate they will be reserving from the price, which will increase to the 21% the Netherlands requires over the minimum 15% the EU does. So they can remit that 21% to the Netherlands Government correctly for your purchase.

They dont need the address for that. They already know its the netherlands (or any other country), so they already know what the taxrate is.

[Darren]

Ursprungligen skrivet av isomorphic_projection:

Ursprungligen skrivet av Matt:

With gift cards, taxes are paid when the gift card is redeemed (used) by the person redeeming it.

Think of a gift card as simply another currency. All you're doing is exchanging your money for "Steam money."

For example, if I exchanged US dollars for Mexican pesos at my bank then used those pesos to buy a cake at the grocery store, I still pay taxes on the cake purchase at the grocery store. The mere fact that I exchanged one currency for another doesn't mean I don't pay taxes.

So what i did, bought in a store and redeemed it. So i already got billed you say now.

Nope redemption of a gift card isn't a purchase. No tax will have been taken out of the funds yet. You need to purchase a good/service first then tax will come out IF that good requires it (not all goods do).

[Matt]

Ursprungligen skrivet av isomorphic_projection:

So what i did, bought in a store and redeemed it. So i already got billed you say now.

Ok...? What is your point of this comment?

[Darren]

Ursprungligen skrivet av DC-GS:

Ursprungligen skrivet av Darren:

What will change is the tax rate they will be reserving from the price, which will increase to the 21% the Netherlands requires over the minimum 15% the EU does. So they can remit that 21% to the Netherlands Government correctly for your purchase.

They dont need the address for that. They already know its the netherlands (or any other country), so they already know what the taxrate is.

How do they magically know your residence is the Netherlands? Or wherever you specifically live (since you aren't the other fellow).

IP information is unreliable. Billing information however is something Valve can take to a government if audited and say "This is the address they gave us as their billing address, it passed all the basic fraud checks so we remitted the tax accordingly."

The gift card purchase address also doesn't work as it can be bought anywhere and redeemed anywhere. Only the location of the person making the purchase matters for the tax.

[AdamxCZE]

Okay, but the valve didn't do it by itself because of fraud on its platform?

[isomorphic_projection]

Ursprungligen skrivet av Matt:

Ursprungligen skrivet av isomorphic_projection:

So what i did, bought in a store and redeemed it. So i already got billed you say now.

Ok...? What is your point of this comment?

You said a steam wallet card bought in a store is taxed the moment it is redeemed, so when i buy a game. Together with my interprotocol, download region which matches, i pay taxes the moment i buy a game. So no need to fill in the form.

[AdamxCZE]

Ursprungligen skrivet av isomorphic_projection:

Ursprungligen skrivet av Matt:

Ok...? What is your point of this comment?

You said a steam wallet card bought in a store is taxed the moment it is redeemed, so when i buy a game. Together with my interprotocol, download region which matches, i pay taxes the moment i buy a game. So no need to fill in the form.

Okay, but the valve didn't do it by itself because of fraud on its platform? For law Is very Fast process.

[Darren]

Ursprungligen skrivet av adam1999x:

Okay, but the valve didn't do it by itself because of fraud on its platform

No it did it because the US States got sick and tired of people avoiding sales tax. For out of state purchases (including digital purchases) sales tax was always required to be paid but out of state stores weren't required to collect the tax. Instead people were required to file and pay the tax as part of their state tax forms.

Guess what, almost nobody did it since either they didn't know (which is possible tax is complicated) or they realised that it was highly likely nobody would ever call them on it even in a audit it'd be hard to realise they hadn't paid tax on a digital product the auditor would likely never even realise you had.

They then changed to rules to tighten up on this making stores remit the tax directly (which Valve has been doing). As a result Valve needs to be sure where people are making purchases from to remit the correct tax. The EU hadn't complained that I'm aware of but with the different tax rates and countries they need to go to it was only a matter of time there as well.

[Darren]

Ursprungligen skrivet av isomorphic_projection:

Ursprungligen skrivet av Matt:

Ok...? What is your point of this comment?

You said a steam wallet card bought in a store is taxed the moment it is redeemed, so when i buy a game. Together with my interprotocol, download region which matches, i pay taxes the moment i buy a game. So no need to fill in the form.

And the moment you buy the game is when Valve needs to know where you live so they can work out what tax rate they need to take out of the price of the game, and which country they need to remit that money to. Hence why they DO need you to fill in the form and fill it in accurately.

[Matt]

We can literally turn this into a 500 reply cyclical thread where the same point is repeated over and over. It's not going to change the outcome though... I do think what can be said, has been said. So I shall leave you with this.

Between the various threads on the topic, I've seen just about every excuse/complaint/rebut...

1. I don't have a billing address...
2. Someone else's info is my billing address...
3. My pet cat or dog is my billing address...
4. I don't have a phone number...
5. I don't want to provide my info...
6. It's not fair that I have to provide my info...
7. I'm not required to provide my info...
8. I don't have to pay taxes...
9. I already paid taxes...
10. They can't tell me what to do...
11. and on and on and on...........

Good luck.

[AdamxCZE]

but isn't it very fast? and why does it only apply to steam? Origin and Epic are also big companies.

[isomorphic_projection]

Ursprungligen skrivet av Darren:

Ursprungligen skrivet av isomorphic_projection:

You said a steam wallet card bought in a store is taxed the moment it is redeemed, so when i buy a game. Together with my interprotocol, download region which matches, i pay taxes the moment i buy a game. So no need to fill in the form.

And the moment you buy the game is when Valve needs to know where you live so they can work out what tax rate they need to take out of the price of the game, and which country they need to remit that money to. Hence why they DO need you to fill in the form and fill it in accurately.

Don't they know to which stores in which country's they sell their steam wallet cards. They have a number, the number corresponds with the number on the receipt. I know it says 0% tax. Hence the store added their tax number. Which to fill in. They sold it to the store, is this my problem. No!.

[Darren]

Ursprungligen skrivet av adam1999x:

but isn't it very fast? and why does it only apply to steam? Origin and Epic are also big companies.

The sales tax laws in the US have been changing for the last year or so now. Every couple of months there has been a new state full of people complaining about having to pay tax on their purchases.

Steam might be ahead of the curve when it comes to their setup, but as the largest company in the sector they would be the first target for auditors they have to either have their systems setup correctly, or have a clear roadmap for getting their to share with the auditors when they come by.

Epic is new to having a marketplace and don't have quite so many ways of getting funds into them that it's probably a problem. I think EA is similar they don't have a lot of ways of getting funds in, and most of them actually are themselves a good and would be taxed as the store.