Two Certainties in Life: Death and [Sales] Taxes

First and foremost, I want to say thanks to all my patrons for your continued and unwavering support. I truly can't express how much it means to me and how grateful I am for all that you do.  As they say, however, no good deed goes unpunished, and the penalty in this instance is sales taxes.  Yes, believe it or not, you are - possibly - about to be taxed on your patronage.

Patreon will be reaching out to all patrons in a couple of days, but the long and short of it is that the laws have changed and - beginning July 1 - sales taxes may have to be collected on your pledges, depending on a number of factors. However, it's important to note a couple of things first.

For starters, if you are in the European Union, Patreon already handles charges for VAT (and has been doing so for years), so nothing will change for you.  (Hooray!)

For everyone else, you may be charged sales tax, but whether such taxes are applicable initially depends on where you, the patron, are located. The sales tax in the patron's region - not that of the creator (me) - is what is controlling.  Thus, if you live in a region with no sales tax, none will be charged.

If, however, you live in a region where sales tax is collected, you still may not have to pay any, as whether said taxes are owed is also a function what benefit you receive for your pledges. Apparently Patreon is going to assess what is being offered at each tier and attempt to determine what - if anything - is taxable at that level. So basically (and assuming I got all the facts right), it's like this:

     Live in the EU - No [additional] sales tax collected

     No sales tax in your region - No sales tax collected

     Not receiving a taxable benefit - No sales tax collected

(I was tempted to put all of this into a neat little flowchart, but then figured it was just as easy to simply list it.)  Needless to say, it's kind of a mess but Patreon is estimating that, overall, only about 30% of patrons will have to pay anything under the new sales tax rules.  (As Patreon puts it, these laws were really meant to get a handle on the Amazons and Ebays of the world, but the wording also makes them applicable to sites like Patreon, although that was reportedly not the intent.)  Also, Patreon is promising to implement some tools that will allow creators to minimize the sales tax on patrons, so you can rest assured that I will be taking full advantage of those as soon as they are available.

In the meantime, you again have my heartfelt thanks for your support. Hopefully all of you are doing well and staying safe, and with any luck few - if any - of you will be affected by the sales tax.