Residents of Brazil are faced with excessive taxes on videogames, a situation that a new online petition is attempting to call attention to.
The Campaign for Fair Tax Video Games (translated) notes that Brazilian videogame purchases contribute only 0.5 percent to the global industry, while the smaller country of Mexico contributes 2.0 percent, a direct result of higher taxes on videogames. The site claims the taxes cause games and consoles to cost up to three times more in Brazil than they do in the U.S.
The petition states that the higher taxes contribute to piracy, hurt retailers, discourage investment in advanced technologies needed to establish game development in Brazil and also put a damper on gaming companies investing in the South American country.
A bill that would have addressed the tax issue was formulated in 2007, but has apparently been caught up in bureaucracy. The petition asks Antonio Palocci, in Brazil’s Chamber of Deputies, to get the bill back into motion and to receive a commitment from Congress for its approval.
Thanks Maurício!
Comments
Re: Brazilian Gamers: Taxes Are Killing Us
This is the reason my relatives are always asking me or family in the U.S. to send them PS3s or 360s. They're way too expensive there.
"The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits." -Albert Einstein
"The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits." -Albert Einstein
Re: Brazilian Gamers: Taxes Are Killing Us
It's probably not as bad as in Mexico. But what has happened due to the high taxes is most people cross over to the states for a day buy a console and games and then jump back into Mexico. :P All of my family does that. XD
Re: Brazilian Gamers: Taxes Are Killing Us
How high are the video game taxes in Brazil?
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Re: Brazilian Gamers: Taxes Are Killing Us
According to the law project (supported by the campaign) author, in some states it can reach 273% over the importation price. I did some calculations myself (I planned to open a import business) and concluded that he is right.
Example, a PS2 is to reach a store as 99 USD, we can suppose that Sony sells it for 60 USD (just an example, I don't know the actual value), the importer would need to pay 60 USD to Sony, and 273% of 60 USD to the government, so 163 USD. After that, the console can be sold to retail stores. The retailer will need to pay more taxes to buy the already imported console, and the shipping from the importer to his store. The shipping company, pays taxes too, and puts the taxes on his price, likewise, the retailer, put his own paid taxes to his final price too (remember that people has to profit too, so likely the retailer don't paid 60 + 163 to the importer, probably he paid like 20 USD more...).
So, if you see a official non-smuggled PS2 here, the final price is 400 USD usually (really, I am not kidding).
Games, are also godamn expensive (I don't own a PS3, but I went to the store see if God Of War III sold well, and indeed the store sold almost all copies, altough it was not a great amount of copies... The price: 120 USD... on that store, some stores sell it for 200 or even 300 USD, depending on how much he bribed the government guy at the airport, how lucky he was, and what state he is).
It is easy to see, why PS2 games here are all pirated (well, I only saw ONCE a original PS2 game, it was a FFX-2 that the guy paid 200 USD, and I saw like a huge amount of PS2 machines...), they are 200 USD too, the same applied to DS, PSP, etc... (A friend once went to buy a DS castlevania, it was priced 148 USD, of course he gave up, and downloaded it to his R4 instead).
This is the reason of this campaign. People here want to prove that they are not everyone "evil pirate scum" and to do that, they want make games drop to a price where they are buyable (oh yes: extra bit of data: 70% of the population, has as salary 300 USD or less... so if you want a PS2 and a single game, you would have to wait 4 months, and don't eat, don't use electricity, don't pay taxes, don't use public bathrooms, that here are charged, don't... you get it).
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