Naughty Road

Patreon and sales tax.

Added 2020-05-20 07:29:54 +0000 UTC

Due to new laws passing in several countries and US states, Patreon will be required to start charging sales tax on some pledges starting July 1st. Nothing changes for patrons from the EU, they already pay VAT.

What Patreon has to say on the subject:

Less than half of all patrons will be charged sales tax, and for most, the amount will be very small. For example, sales tax rates in the US range from 4% to 11%, so on a $5 pledge, that would be between 20 cents and 55 cents.

Whether or not you will be charged sales tax depends on your location, and what is considered taxable there. Not every pledge is taxable, not all benefits are taxable in every location, and sometimes only a fraction of a pledge will be taxable. The money that Patreon collects as a result of these laws are paid directly to local governments.

If you’re in a location where sales tax will be required, you should expect to receive an email from Patreon with more information about this very soon.

If you have questions, you should be able to find answers here. If you still have questions, the best place to get an answer is from Patreon’s customer support team, here.

Apparently Patreon will automatically try and determine if and what benefits patrons get based on a machine interpretation of the descriptions on this page, and determine if your particular local tax laws require withholding sales tax. But they promise to launch an interface later this month where I can adjust their findings, and hopefully avoid the tax for some of you that are affected, if their machine got it wrong.