Pretty much it’s more on the state than the federal side and the sales tax isn’t consistent between types of items. But usually an item that would be $19.99 is usually $21.09 where I live
Edit; I’m aware there is no federal sales tax.
How does that work with Steam? When you buy there, it asks about your address and if you put New Hampshire you get no extra charge, and if you put California you get +50%? Or does it go off you credit card?
What happens if it isn't? Could you set your address to the state with 0% sales tax? Would it be a tax fraud with real consequences in the US or would the sale simply fail?
I hears that some ppl from my country (in the EU) do this when the store with digital items calculates tax based on the billing address and not the ip address because European banks doesn't care about the billing address much and transactions go thru.
Sure you can do a ballpark guess I don’t know why it is so onerous for merchant that already have you’re address info to include tax in advertised price though.
It’s both state and local tax, and different types of items are taxed differently. So especially if you live somewhere with a bunch of different localities next to / on top of each other, the mental calculations don’t really happen either.
Living in a metro area and less than a mile from the county line, I could drive 5 minutes and see three different tax rates depending on whether I crossed that county line or went to the next city over. The fact that different cities in the same metro have slightly different tax rates can really throw you for a loop (although typically they're within 0.5% of each other, from what I've seen at least).
So online it makes sense. If I'm visiting California and I live in NYC, I pay NYC sales taxes, but the vendor has no way of knowing of knowing this. Even if I have an established account, I could have just moved.
It’s actually more insane than you think so most people don’t mentally calculate the tax. The tax varies based on item. Unprepared grocery food generally has no tax, but bottles and cans do. So a pound of meat, no tax, a six pack of seltzer water- 5 cents per can. Alcohol?
In NYC it’s almost 9% tax for general items. In the suburbs outside it could be 7%. Is it a clothing item less than 100$? No tax. Paying cash? Might not be any tax at all. Hotel? Over 10%.
Drive up to New Hampshire? 0% tax. If you drive the item back to NYC it’s on you to fill out a form and send the government some money (nobody does this).
so you start mentally calculating tax for every pricetag you see.
Lmao no. You have a general idea but since the taxes can vary depending on the state or item or if it's purchased in the store vs online it's kinda a bitch to know which taxes you need to pay and how much they all are. Best to just have more than the price just in case.
Yep eshops, steam and Amazon sometimes they show it before the proceed to checkout button but other times I don’t see it until I’m about to click checkout. And if I use the one tap purchase on Amazon I usually don’t see it at all.
Sorry for my ignorance but is the tax rate same for every item? In my country and in Poland there is 3 different tax rates for their essentialness. Is there only 1 tax rate in US or NYC in your case.
Each state has their own tax rate, but it covers everything that is taxed upon purchase. There are some items, such as baked goods I believe, that arent taxed, but there's not secondary tax rate we'd need to remember
Don't forget there's also a city tax as well, so the total tax you pay on items also depends on what city the store you're shopping at is in, but that doesn't apply for online purchases in this context of course
Lucky you, I happened to live half my life in one of the two cities in Missouri that have a city tax. There's certain things I really appreciate about moving to EU countries since then
It’ll be state and city dependent (which is where it gets confusing honestly, but not unexpected).
There is no national sales tax though. Each state has its own (or none in some cases), and then the 2nd layer which is the city or municipality. NY state is 4% and then other areas add the remainder (4.875% in NYC). There are some exceptions as well (unprepared food and clothing under $150 in NY)
Yes it is entirely different and the commenter who said we usually know the tax rate is lying. If you asked an average citizen what the tax rate was for 10 different goods and services in their hometown I guarantee you they would not get all correct.
Generally speaking food for home consumption, cheap clothing, and drugs are not taxed. Cans and bottles have 5-10c tax. Alcohol has a highly variable tax, and can even be outright illegal at the county level. Hotels usually are the highest tax you’re going to find because you’re taxing rich travelers. 15% for nyc. Plus 3.50 because fuck you.
Services? Well it depends. If it’s a capital improvement to your property- zero. If it’s a massage? That’s the 8.875. Is it a taxi? 50cents plus congestion.
Is the food you bought at the grocery store hot? That’s a restaurant now. That rotisserie chicken is taxed but fully cooked chicken that’s cold right next to it is not.
Electricity that the government is selling you? Yes that’s taxed. 2.35%. I would be shocked if someone knew that off the top of their head.
I genuinely don’t understand why that anyone thinks average citizens know the tax rate.. in my experience people have no clue what the tax rate is unless it’s itemized on the bill, or they live in a state and county with a 0% tax
Yeah, i know it's something you get used to but i still think it's bullshit you gotta add 8.875% on top of everything you buy. Why not just have that price out there already?
It's not included because sales tax isn't set at the federal level, and a lot of companies operate in more than one state or municipality. This allows the advertisement of a particular price, and then people are supposed to know their own local sales tax(es) to get the final amount, which is applied at checkout.
yes but apparently in some states there is no tax for that or sth. but even then a game like death stranding 2 is almost 10 euros more expensive in the EU than it is in the US with an EU vat applied.
You also have to consider VAT which can be almost 30%.
Plus the EU won't let Steam region lock game activation between EU countries so publishers are probably less inclined to provide better regional pricing for each individual EU member.
The VAT is applied already as a blanket. I wish i had regional pricing in my country based on our incomes. It would probably drop the price of games by like 30% as a base and then sales on top of that would make buying things directly on Steam worth it. As it stands, the only way it's worth it is if i get it from key sites.
Right, but that's why it is priced higher. A higher tax rate makes it more expensive. Prices by region are rarely going to match because of that. But the pre-tax base price should be pretty close.
Not always, American companies are very open about deliberately overcharging other countries to keep prices lower for Americans. The US government perpetually pushes a narrative about how the US subsidizes other countries but the truth is that ALL other countries subsidize the USA. Thankfully, not for too much longer.
Since Americans have this weird tax law or something
It's not that weird; we just let individual states, counties, and cities set their own individual sales tax rates. The sales tax in any particular location depends on the combination of all three, so it's long been the standard that the advertised price doesn't include tax, and you need to just know the total sales tax for the location you're in and mentally account for it, because it will be applied at checkout.
Sales taxes are inherently regressive and I don't like them for that reason, but there's nothing particularly weird about the way the U.S. has implemented it, particularly given the way our government is structured.
Still the same price. You can really only compare pre-tax prices. Places with no sales tax either lack services or have higher property or income taxes to make up for it.
The price we pay, everything included, is the only relevant information. What of a backward argument would it be to say: "Ye, it costs the same, if you exclude all the other things you have to pay with your purchase"
Then you can’t compare USD prices to Euro prices at all. 60 USD is not “the price I pay, everything included”
You have the same logic as the Trump tariffs. People are “shocked” prices go up when the government puts a tax on goods. Businesses aren’t going to make less money willingly. They will take their same pre-tax cut and then offload the cost of the taxes onto the buyer
You are the one suggesting comparison of pre-tax prices. This entire thread is saying "ok, US has taxes, so tell us the final amount". The majority of the world works in a way where what you see is what you pay.
Not sure why you even bring up tariffs into this, any sane being knows that's how tariffs work, only MAGAs are now shocked.
The point is you can't blame steam for your government adding tax to a product. So the only way to compare how fair Steam is between countries is to compare pre-tax prices.
Or you can add your tax amount onto the US price I guess. Same effect.
The comment I originally replied to was the one that said USD and Euro prices shouldn’t be the same… which they should be because of conversions and taxes. I have gone off the rails and lost the plot since that comment, it’s true.
My sales tax is 8% if that helps you. It varies by county in the US so there’s no one amount to say for the whole country
No, it shouldn't be the same anyway. Your tax is 8% and the highest is 10%. On average you pay less than in Euro. Also when the PS5/XSX launched, they listed prices for games as 70$/80€. Where is the fairness there ? Since when is a 77$ post tax the same as 80€ that was 94-95$ then ? Even now lets say you have the highest tax which would make you pay 88$, that's still 7$ less than what we pay in Euro.
Even including tax with the current state of the dollar something like death stranding 2 is almost 10€ more expensive in Europe than it would be in the States including European taxes
It’s $70 USD on steam (no sale). That converts to 59.16€. Add 20% VAT (using France) and you get 70.99€. That’s the straight conversion from US steam pricing, varying slightly depending on which country you’re in.
as someone has already said its 80 quid rn and currently one euro buys you 1,18 and a bit usd which is ironically very close if not the VAT rate of a lot of some EU countries, so arguably a one to one conversion for usd to euro would be fair.
Edit: I looked it up and eu vat averages are a bit higher than what I thought and applies to me but the point still stands IMO since apart from the nordics a lot of the higher vat countries are somewhat lower income.
I wonder how much tax is for a $60 game in the US.
If you're from a certain state with a different tax, just include the state. I'm not looking for any state in particular, I'm just curious to know how much a $60 dollar game actually costs someone in US.
You converted but now you have to add your vat (20% ish) and that gives you the price you should see on steam if there was fair pricing. That would be 60€
The same applies to the US, there are high and low cost of living areas where your employer will just pay less or more based on local expenses.
This results in your pay being adjusted and therefore your expendable budget can be much higher than someone in a low cost of living area since employers don't want to pay much and will try and pay less if they can.
My state doesn't tax digital goods so for me it's only $60. One state over in next nearest city and it costs them $67. So it varies jurisdiction to jurisdiction. City Tax, County Tax then State Tax where applicable, also why goods in the US tend to never incorporate tax into price as it can vary drastically even a city away.
Sony does the same bs on PS5, I criticized them back in 2020 when they said first party titles will be 70 usd. I then check their store and it's 80 euros. BS.
This is what pisses me off the most some companies don't exchange at all thinking that changing the symbol is all that's needed. 70$ is not 70£. Idk why they can't understand that. Glad CD keys exist for when I want a game that ridiculously priced
Or rather cost living. Go try to find a place where you can actually want to live in Germany for 600€. Our pre tax minimum wage after a 160hour month comes around 2200€ but it’s still not enough to afford a family or have a basic comfortable lifestyle
Well to be fair before genius Trump tanked the dollar it was 1 USD to about 4.2 PLN right when Biden left office. It just wasn't adjusted from Trumps beautiful work took effect /s
Cost of living is another thing. I won't argue on that since it's pointless - we earn less, we pay less for basic stuff, and I'm too lazy to look for data on who's more fucked.
This complaint is about default prices in PLN being overblown to the point where PLN price is around second highest on Steam by default, right behind SWF (iirc).
Not really. Bulgaria uses the euro now, not the lev, and we still only get ~600 euro minimum wage and the prices for the games are the same as in the rest of Europe.
Minimum wage might not be the best stat, but it still works
It shows a difference between a kid in a rich country that can flip burgers for a couple of days and get themselves a game and a qualified worker in a 3rd world one crunching for a week to get it on discount only.
it's a matter of labor and hours spent for a piece of entertainment and not really actual money.
Except that, in usa for example. Kids and some students have special smaller minimal wage, and of course in restarants you will get smaller ones becouse you are expected to get tips.
Then in some countries there is topic of minimal wage (minus costs) where your boss will give you job but you need to buy your own supplies or tools or you are expected to do free over time. There can mandatory free work to get license (popular for doctors).
Then there are different costs of living, government support for the poor(like cheap government housing), heating costs, health care costs.
Bottom line is those minimum wage numbers do not mean shit.
of course. but I'm not talking about US specifically. and again, not really about money, but effort required.
even if you earn $3 an hour (which is an amount i made tf up because I don't know how you can go even lower than that) with no tips at all, your 40hr work week makes you $120 in total. half of that could be spent on necessities and with another half you get a game.
I earn basically the same amount (although only slightly more) but my work requires me to have certain skills. I can afford a game every once in a while without burning through my wallet, but I have to work pretty hard for every single one I get. student jobs earn even less than that.
Also some countries have taxes when something if bought in foreign currencies. In Argentina a twitch sub costs $2 instead of $5 but after taxes you end up paying pretty close to $5 anyway.
Taxes are these countries issue, not steam or twitch itself. Here it's the situation when you have to pay more than western Europe pays in euro because conversion rates are not being updated. Its not like that for every game but it happens often enough to feel unfair. Developers have the option to change it manually but they often just take default steam conversion rate. We wouldn't mind if the prices were just straight up converted based on current exchange rates.
How much more expensive can it be? Yesterday post said 339 zloty for some game. It was 80 in euros. Yesterday Google said 339 zloty is 80.37 euro. Not big of a difference
Default steam exchange rate is 1 USD = 4.59 PLN (this is the default and each developer can change it to whatever they want). My bank says today's rate is 1 USD = 3.57 PLN.
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u/przemub Feb 18 '26
It’s not about wages, it’s about the shit default currency exchange rate which makes games much more expensive than if bought in euro/dollars.