1. There's no one who will complain to the EU about this because they made pretty sure that the average person doesn't have the time, money or knowlege to do so.
Also, since it's very easy to circumvent paying VAT to LL, there's not much reason for that either.

Posted at 11:23AM on Sep 30th 2007 by Juliet Ceres

2. I think it would be a good idea. I'm planning on using the blog for my magazine Prim Perfect to get the ball rolling.

We can lobby MEPs individually as well as putting together a petition. I suspect individual emails from voters, asking questions that have to be answered, will have more effect than petitions unless we were able to collects a HUGE number of signatures.

Although there might be a way to do that too.

People tend to dismiss Linden Labs, but what hurts residents economically hurts them too. They don't want to lose businesses or residents, or be seen to have an economy in decline - because that will hit them hard too (and at a time when other organisations seem to be gearing up for virtual worlds). So their support for a petition would be very useful.

And what about spreading this through other games that could, in the future, be affected?

I'm doing an article for the blog today - and will post a link to it here when it's posted..

Posted at 12:58PM on Sep 30th 2007 by Saffia Widdershins

3. The address for my blogpost on this, which offers my sufggestions for starting a campaign is at: http://primperfectblog.wordpress.com/2007/09/30/the-eu-vat-and-second-life-what-can-we-do/

Posted at 2:13PM on Sep 30th 2007 by Saffia Widdershins

4. There is not much reason to complain for EU based "businesses" and not much of a competitive disadvantage. If you are a "business" and are declaring your SL based income with the financial authorities anyway it makes A LOT of sense to get a VAT ID. It even makes sense to do so, when you are a small business not doing business in SL ;)

And as soon as you have a VAT ID you are not paying any VAT to Linden Lab.

There is a (competitive?) disadvantage for consumers, though. There is no way to avoid VAT for them.

Posted at 2:43PM on Sep 30th 2007 by Markus Breuer (Pham Neutra)

5. is that vat thing charged on L$ transactions or just when converting L$ into euros (and back)?

Posted at 4:18PM on Sep 30th 2007 by TigroSpottystripes Katsu

6. It's charged when paying Linden Lab for stuff: Paying for tier, a premium account or L$ - and is as much as 25% depending on which EU member nation you are in.

Posted at 5:46PM on Sep 30th 2007 by Tateru Nino

7. I am european (french) and at first I was surprised of the title of this article.

In fact in this situation I wouldn’t have thought of suing the EU. I would have thought of influencing better laws for taxing electronic products (witch I already do).
Pragmatically, suing Linden Labs would be much faster, easier, and probably successful, european financial law being complex and Linden Labs being usually quite clumsy.

Maybe it’s just a cultural thing witch differentiate UC and EU citizen, like this two small point:
In the US taxes are added to the product advertised cost, whereas in the EU taxes are comprised in the price (and businesses need VAT receipt to be paid back VAT).

That said for us EU citizens (and our legal system too) the price, when nothing more is said, is reputed to bee taxes included.

For now, Linden Labs apply EU tax laws, we don’t mind it, we mind the sneaky way it was done, and the lack of respect we think it shows, witch may just be a cultural difference, but in all case, has broken lot’s of projects, thrown out lot of people from SL, and eroded the remaining confidence we had in the Linden has being good for the SL community as a whole.

Posted at 7:06AM on Oct 1st 2007 by DD Ra

8. Actually, I didn't think of a lawsuit either. By 'complaint', I meant registering an objection in the hopes of influencing current and future regulations.

Posted at 7:08AM on Oct 1st 2007 by Tateru Nino

9. By 'complaint', I meant registering an objection in the hopes of influencing current and future regulations.

That's what I've been working on. I've had details of an existing UK government petition, and also found someone who listed useful addresses (for MEPs etc). They're in my recent blog post on this.

Posted at 4:24AM on Oct 2nd 2007 by Saffia Widdershins

10. No, VAT is applicable. I shall consider the time without paying for it to have been a bonus. (c:

Besides, the exchange rate is still rather favourable.

Taxes aren't evil, they're a necessity.

Posted at 3:39AM on Oct 10th 2007 by Marcus