What do you Pay at the Checkout for Games? They are $119.95 in Australia

[picotrek]

@BRiT

…g advantage of GamePass. As such, when people buy games that are on GamePass you get 10% or 20% discounts. Many also use the Microsoft Rewards program which provides for points that can be redeemed for money to use towards game purchases. The points from that program pays for all of my game purchases over the past decade. So my answer to your question is $0. Some buy digitial codes from online places for a discount or even to avoid paying taxes. The US tax situation is a proper cluster mess. The tax zones are not by state or county or city (biggest to smallest area) but by tax regions. Some tax regions are rather arbitrary sections that split a city while some are larger. For my region it is 8%. I could change my billing address to my sister’s place and the tax rate would drop down to 6.75%.

So if the price is “$70” games is USA. A non Tech/Game savy purchaser would pay $74.73 to $ 75.60 at a Tax Rate 6.75 to 8%) Which is the Simple non political answer, cheers.

[BRiT]

@picotrek

So if the price is “$70” games is USA. A non Tech/Game savy purchaser would pay $74.73 to $ 75.60 at a Tax Rate 6.75 to 8%) Which is the Simple non political answer, cheers.

No. Some areas have No Taxes at all, a 0% rate. Some areas may have higher taxes like 12%.

[picotrek]

@BRiT

No. Some areas have No Taxes at all, a 0% rate. Some areas may have higher taxes like 12%.

ok, yeah, what a mess.

So if you pay Digital on your Xbox in the USA (no Keys), you would pay the Tax on your Geo Location?

Or can you put a VPN on your router to pay no tax? (If your savvy enough)

Please Educate me (I am a nerd lol)

[BRiT]

@picotrek

ok, yeah, what a mess.

So if you pay Digital on your Xbox in the USA (no Keys), you would pay the Tax on your Geo Location?

Or can you put a VPN on your router to pay no tax? (If your savvy enough)

Please Educate me (I am a nerd lol)

Yes. I would pay 8%. My sister who is 15 minutes away pays 6.75%.

I think Microsoft is using the billing address on the account, and not based on GeoIP. I dont think its tied to the Credit Card billing address either because they still charge taxes even if you’re using account balance credits. So when I redeem points, my account balance gets hit for 108% of the listed price to account for taxes.

Everything was better way back, years and years ago, when nothing sold online/internet collected taxes.

[Daniel]

Digital has always been more expensive here, before the increase it was always $99.95 for $60US games and used to be $69/$79 for physical.

[Mort]

@BRiT

Yes. I would pay 8%. My sister who is 15 minutes away pays 6.75%.

I think Microsoft is using the billing address on the account, and not based on GeoIP. I dont think its tied to the Credit Card billing address either because they still charge taxes even if you’re using account balance credits. So when I redeem points, my account balance gets hit for 108% of the listed price to account for taxes.

Everything was better way back, years and years ago, when nothing sold online/internet collected taxes.

Here all prices are always including taxes. What you see is what you pay, tax is the same all over the country so that helps I suppose.