A taxing situation

Hi folks,

Best wishes from all of us at Rusty Towers and we hope you’re all well and safe. While we note that many countries are starting to ease the lockdown, here at Rusty Towers we are still very mindful that our operations and studio situation are such that we will continue to be operating remotely for some time yet.

Again, it’s a quiet week on the news front, I’m afraid. It’s fair to say that, like many production companies, the current global situation and shutdowns have impacted us in ways we hadn’t expected and are still adjusting to. We’re doing a lot of work behind the scenes to ensure that things like production and development work are still able to happen and as soon as I can tell you more about that, I will.

One small thing: if anyone is planning on sending something to our PO Box, please ensure that the letter/package is addressed to Rusty Quill or Rusty Quill Ltd and NOT to an individual person here. If it is for someone specific, please include that inside the post. We are having issues with the PO Box handler not accepting post for individuals and things may be returned to sender.

The big thing this week, however, is tax and how it affects your Patreon pledge. As of 1st July 2020, Patreon will be implementing sales tax on pledges for Patrons living in 36 US states and 17 other countries, including Australia, India, Norway, Canada (Quebec), Switzerland, Iceland and South Africa. If you are living in an affected country, Patreon will have already emailed you about this in June.

Now, how much pledges in affected areas will rise by is going to be variable and depends on what fraction of the pledge is taxable in those jurisdictions. Some of our Patreon bonuses will be taxable and some won’t, so we can’t say exactly what the impacts will be yet. And because this change involves the USA, the tax has to be split out as a separate line item and can’t be included in our up front pricing (not to mention that it varies from state to state as well). According to their figures, a US resident may see an increase of 20 – 55 cents on a $5 pledge (though we will see if that’s true or not in just over a week).

This means that at present, we are unable to pay/cover the additional tax on your behalf, which would be our preferred solution. However, we are not planning on making any immediate changes to our pricing/tier structure, as we wish to see how Patreon handles this change and if they make any further changes to the handling in July. That said, Callum and Tai are investigating other ways that we can mitigate some of the issues (including a pricing restructure if necessary) and ensure that you all continue to get value for your Patreon pledge to us.

If you have any comments or suggestions on this situation, please leave a comment below.

And, here's what you can expect from us this week (all shows release at 4pm UK time, unless otherwise stated):

Tue 23rd June
RQG158 – Travelling Coat* (Patreon)

Wed 24th June
MAG173 – Night Night (Patreon)
RQG158 – Travelling Coat* (Public)
RQ Streams – Anil plays… West of Loathing (5pm) 

Thu 25th June
MAG173 – Night Night (Public)

Fri 26th June
Knight/Noble Bonus – TMA Fluff Winner #3 : Bargain Hunting

Sat 27th June
RQ Streams – Mike plays… The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt (3pm)

Sun 28th June
RQ Streams – Tessa plays… Neversong (4pm)

* Provisional title, subject to change

Have a good week all!

Anil
Community Manager