I would like to know how long I should wait before making stuff or if I should bother. I live in Japan and would like to know if it is actually going to start taking off at all it's been a few months, I hope it's not one of those "Soon" features that is meant to be there in 2 months, but actually takes 2 years to implement. (maybe a little exaggeration there)
They've already said it will take a considerable amount of time since they need to allow all countries this feature on an "unlocking" basis. Since every country has different rules, they need to make one agreement for each country to avoid legal issues. Because as we all know, laws are stupid.
Well, tax law is annoying anyway. I would have thought that they would already be able to do something where they have group companies and the parent company using a legal template(from the other Sony companies) or requesting info from those companies. I know they are run as separate entities, but I'm sure they help each other and have very favorable communication with each other. I'm sure the Sony record company(I know different company) agreement that they have with itunes and other licensees for music distribution would be able to help them here. I dunno, I just want to do something with this Player Studio program while the market isn't flooded or it still exists.
Thy are paying people to design the item, completely different set of rules when income is added to the mix, they have to start figuring out what the income tax laws are and make sure that they are in compliance with each and every country and have the means to report that income to the respective designers goverment, for exampe here is the US a 1099 is issued if the person earns above a specific monetary cap and that person is required to report it on their income tax filing to pay taxes on it
It sounds to me like they are hiring people as independent contractors or separate self employed company entity and that would mean that the person has to pay for their own taxes via income tax by making a declaration. The marketplace is simply that, people are selling them the rights to use the artwork and in turn get royalties from it for players that actually use it. They would have to word the contract to reflect that of course. Otherwise how would people be able to use Turbosquid and the like.
depend on the laws of the country that the person lives in, they are still subject to taxes, even in the US a "independant contracter" will get a 1099 from the US based companies, this includes royalties, they may not be required to take taxes out but they are required to report any income issued to a independant contractor or a person recieving royalties - again these reporting requirements will vary betwqeen countries,or at a lower local governing body. There is still some form of required reporting of income in any country, be it royalties, self employed, add in "sellng the rights to a object" and it gets even more diverse - seems to remember some countries that private citizens are not allowed to interact with US based entities under heavy penalty.
They should just pay them with in game rewards like free subs and expansions or SC so they don't have to worry about the tax issue. Another option is to use the IMVU model which allows for anonymous item submissions. But if SoE is really going to go the tax route then international Player Studio will likely never happen. If you look back at station exchange international sales were in the "coming soon" tag for five years and then never happened by the time station exchange shut down. __________________________________________________________________________
Thanks for letting me know about the station exchange thing, sounds like it will just drag on then. If it happens, it happens. I'm gonna stick with the "not" and just sell models on Turbosquid and other 3d model selling marketplaces then. Thanks for this, sounds about on par for tax law.
