[Indies] Does the currencies market concern you?

I'm concerned.

We all seem to trade in US Dollars, don't we? Yet the Dollar is the weakest against the Pound that I've seen for a long time. Currently £1 = $2.05.

Is it time we reviewed the situation, or what? I've recently cut the price of Buzzword to $14.95 which converts to a little over £7 gross profit.

Should we trade in our own currency? Or would it be better to review our pricing structure and still trade in USD? The commonly used price tag of $19.95 will be worth nothing by Christmas at this rate.

depends...a large chunk of the Market is US so you gotta offer them the dollar price really that they expect as normally, putting it up may not got down well. Funny thing is if you buy games from BFG or whatever, they are £12 not £10!

I guess you can always sell the game in £'s instead of $'s, and let the current rate change the other currencies accordingly...

You could conveniently forget to update your exchange rates and charge different amounts for USD vs. Pounds. Everyone else is doing it! ;)

GFK,

You may find this useful. Look at the bottom of my 'software' page www.d-grafix.com?page=software , theres a button ad link to a free service that will replace all the selected currency on your page with whichever currency you choose at the top using the current exch rate, Or i believe you can click on the price itself to change the currency.

I work in Euros but always show the prices in $ by default or whichever you like.

Screw the US. Charge them a premium because it costs extra to support US buyers.

That's the excuse RedHat et al use when asked why they charge extra in Europe for the same products they sell in America.

Team America wins again.

Yes it does. I've been selling PhysLite for a very short time and in that time it's Sterling value has plumitted just because I list the price in USD. If it drops any lower I'll have to start listing the price in pounds Sterling.

It's a great time to be a UK buyer but a poor time to be a UK seller.

It's just one of those things, just focus on shifting more units and making bigger and better stuff.

Would that not be tax? VAT in Europe is 20% and some companies charge a flat 20% tax rate across all of Europe.

When self publishing a game, where do you pay tax to? The country the game is sold in or the country you live in?

It's income, so you have to pay tax (is it called VAT in this case?) in the country you are living.

The country you live in -- but the buyer may technically also be required to pay import duties (in case of physical media) or use tax, although next to noone does the latter.

Perhaps I should put the games on my site up from £9.99 to £12 then :-)

@Gabriel

Doesn't this differ from country to country?! In germany we don't have 20%. I would be hard pressed to say which country in europe has 20%...

Austria has 20% and Denamrk has 25%!

Yep but Austria also has luxus taxes too (30% if i remember correctly). In germany we have 19% for "normal" goods but 7% for essential stuff like food.

How are the taxes in England?

Remember you need to be VAT registered to charge VAT. If you are not registered and charge VAT then you are very likely to be prosecuted.

I saw a report that says the average adult in the UK loses 50% of their earnings in tax, and I can believe it. VAT is 17.5%.

Yeah sweden too has 25% VAT. and that applies to all sales in the EU. Which is dumb because someone from hungary who pays about 8% is gonna get their nose out of joint over 25%
I don't get why you cannot charge the correct vat for the correct country within the EU.

Thats why i give the option for customers to use share-it as they are like resellers (charge their own 16% german vat so i dont have to).

It's a problem for us, I'm in the US. So if we get a payment of $4000 each, Cygnus only ends up with a little less than 2000 pounds which doesn't seem much. Whilst here in the US, $4000 is probably closer to 3000 - 3500 pounds in spending power.

I'd settle for an income of $4000 per month!

Then why don't you count this in and split it different so that both of you get the same purchasing power?

Yes, it does, but for some reason some businesses seem to assume a flat 20% VAT rate across Europe.

Sorry but I wouldn't, can't in fact unless I downsize the house to a shed, give away the kids and ride a bike everywhere, oh and eat cardboard...

Yeah - 22% on most products for us Finns.

Basically in the UK you pay roughly 20-25% (it's around 23% for me) earnings tax and National Insurance (for the "free" NHS and for state pension) unless you are a high earner then you pay 40% on the upper earnings. Then you get your money home and everything you buy (except food, books and stamps) has VAT on at 17.5% (fuel is 5%) so you pay out more tax. Not forgetting there's tons more tax on cigarettes and booze, but if you buy them, then that's your problem.

So let's see, to buy a thing costing £100 net of VAT you have to pay £117.50. And that was out of your take home cash which was higher before tax, so assuming 23% tax it's £117.5/0.77 = £152.60. So you need to earn approx £150 for every £100 item you wish to buy, bummer hey.

That's why I get all technical stuff (and games!) through my VAT registered Ltd. Company because I a) claim back 17.5% VAT and b) write off the Nett cost of the item against profit thus saving a further 20% on corporation tax. All in all, a pretty good saving.

You can't "beat" the system but you can make the best of it. That's why I have an accountant cos they can tell me all the legal tricks of the trade...

That's funny, we pay more in the U.S. and we get absolutely nothing in return.

Grey Alien:
Beh, stop complaining, at my current salary, I pay 37% in income tax and there's a 14% sales tax on everything.
So if I go by your calculations, if I get a thing costing $100, I add the sales taxes and get $114. Then, add the income tax in order to see how much I need to earn: $114/0.63 = $180.95.
Could be worse, my boss is at 43%, so he needs to work for $200 to get this $100 item.
And you think you brits get screwed over...

Yowzer! Actually I'm not really complaining just laying out some facts. I'd rather not get into the mindset of "not having enough" or "things being too expensive" as it slows me down from "having enough money that I don't care".

Norway:

The last place I worked, I payed 48% taxes on my income...
Then there's 25% tax (VAT) on all stuff you purchase, except food, which is 12% (IIRC)... Then there's extra tax on sugar and a whole range of other items..
And on gasoline there's 80% tax.. and there's tax, once a year, if you own a car, and also if you own a TV or radio.. heh :(

Someone calculated that from 100 NOK, you're actually left with only 15 NOK, after everything is deducted..

So you guys just stop complaining.. ;) hehe

Oh yeah we get car tax too. Also I've just recalled that we get insurance tax as well.

But wages are quite high in Norway, right?