Residents with questions about the newly imposed VATcrowded in to Robins office hours - standing room only - in fact people were even crowded around the sim shouting questions and hoping for answers.
Robin coped well with this and did her best to respond - “this decision is based on tax advice. I'm not an expert, and can't debate it with you"
Although Robin did promise answers would be forthcoming there is a lot of anger at the lack of communication from Linden Lab, it has not even warrented a blog post.
It is nice to know that some Lindens can apologise -
“I can apologize for not communicating better, but I can't help with questions about VAT."
- but surely they also should have realised there are a lot of people waiting for answers! At least some sort of official recognition of their right to ask those questions.
Robin did her best to answer some questions although as she said she is not a tax expert, she did reassure Europeans that they are not paying twice, which has been said, Linden prices do not already include American taxes; “There's a law that we had to obey. In the US we have taxes, but they don't apply to online business in the same way.”
She also showed some concern “I really hope our European customers won't leave,” and her comment that Linden lab is looking into allowing fees to be paid in Linden Dollars went down well.
Robin also promised to get a tax expert in to answer questions in Euro-friendly hours next week.
Considering that Europeans make up about a third of the residents, this is going to hit an already depleted economy hard. One American stated “I'm American ... I can see the hideous advantage I get over the Europeans.” These taxes will hit not just Europeans' costs but also hit their tenents and employees, the results will be wide reaching and we are only just beginning to see the impact.
Dana