Update regarding sales tax in the US, Australia, Quebec, and a couple other locations

Hey guys,

If you support anyone else on Patreon you've probably seen this going around. People that've been Europe based have already been paying VAT on their pledges, but starting July 1st the US (and a few other locations) will start having sales tax applied. 

There's a whole 'sample post' that Patreon gave us on the topic. I'm like allergic to boilerplate copy/paste writing lol, so I'll quote it in a second... but first I wanted to give what I thought to be the most helpful thing about the sales tax update (a table buried in the announcements). The changes are going to affect these locations:

Man... Russia, Norway, and Iceland... woof.

Stateside, the 14 exempt states are some of the usual suspects: Delaware, Oregon, Alaska, Florida, Kansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, New Hampshire, Oregon, Tennessee. 

Now, I know that most of you support us for... the expressed purpose of supporting the project. If I've done this right, that reality will be reflected in the tax - about a third of the $1 tier should be taxable, and half of the higher tiers. Let me know what that ends up looking like on your end, and I can fiddle around with things if that ends up being unreflective of what they're actually charging.

In any event, I do know there's a good chunk of you that support only us on Patreon, so without further ado... the boilerplate copy/paste post re sales tax they told us to give y'all:  

I wanted to give you an update on some changes that we’ll be seeing which may affect some of your pledges. 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. 

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.

I’m working closely with Patreon to ensure I’m able to save you as much money as possible when it comes to sales tax - which is not something that’s possible with other platforms.

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, but I wanted to make sure you were aware of these changes way ahead of July 1st when they go into effect. 

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. 

As always, the support from you guys has been incredible. I'll need to get started on that book pretty soon, huh...