The Taxman’s taken all my dough and left me in my stately home, lazing on a sunny afternoon.
In a pleasing but rather bizarre announcement, Linden Lab have blogged; Cheaper Monthly Premium & the End of VAT Charges. First of all let’s take a look at those cheaper monthly premium charges :
Now, we’re reducing the standard cost of a monthly Premium subscription to just $9.50 a month. Enjoy all the benefits of Premium Membership for less!
The price of a monthly Second Life premium membership has been reduced by 45 cents a month, down fro $9.95 to $9.50. The quarterly plan remains $22.50 for three months and the yearly plan remains $72.00 a year.
On a month by month comparison the quarterly plan works out at $7.50 a month and the yearly plan works out at just $6.00 a month, so they both offer better value than a regular monthly plan but some people prefer a monthly fee, there’s a good choice for different use cases here. The rates and other Second Life related costs can be found here.
Premium Membership in Second Life offers some perks, including :
- A personal and private home or free 512m tier if you want to buy a plot of mainland.
- Expanded support, including Live Chat.
- Exclusive Experience: Magellan’s Grid Hunt.
- Exclusive Activites: Dune Buggy Racing in Racer’s Gulch.
For more details on Premium Membership perks in Second Life, go here.
Where the blog post gets bizarre is with the next part of the announcement :
We will also no longer charge VAT for Premium subscriptions. If you live in a region where VAT applies, this means an effective savings in some countries of more than 20% below what you would have previously paid!
I’m not sure what exactly Linden Lab mean by this. Are they really saying the aren’t charging VAT or are they actually absorbing the VAT? Let’s go into speculation mode and look at a couple of scenarios.