Clarification re: taxes on purchases

Hello,

I'm hoping for clarification on how and why taxes are applied to purchases. Here is the scenario:

I have an account balance converted from the old points to Canadian currency. These are listed as a "promotional balance" in my account.

I recently purchased 3 titles, all using this balance:

• The first was not taxed, as expected (in January)
• The 2nd and third were taxed, but each at a different tax rate (in February).
  

It is my understanding that purchases using these points are not taxed, as they were taxed already when the points were bought. The problem here is that items 2 and 3 should not have been taxed at all, though the fact that they were taxed at different rates
indicates there is something else wrong on the billing end as well.

Seems to be there is a problem on the billing end.

Can anyone shed light on this issue?

:)

 

Tax on purchases?

After 10 years membership I am now paying £1.00 for a £4.99 (20%)monthly subscription. Keep it up MS and some long standing customer will move to PS.

 

Tax on purchases?

Hey there EGOMANTIS!

This thread is quite a bit old. If you would like assistance with a support related issue, please feel free to create a new thread. Be sure to include the details of the issue as well as any troubleshooting steps that you have tried. Thanks in advance!

 

Taxes are charged on all items as per sales regulations. It does not matter if you paid tax when you purchased the currency because the currency and the items purchased are separate sales from separate retailers.

As for the different tax rate, whether or not that happened cannot be addressed in the forums. You can check your purchases to get the final price at commerce.microsoft.com and then contact phone support for more assistance. Dial 1-800-469-9269

 

Thank you for the reply.

As far as charging taxes, I did find a mention of this on Microsoft's currency transition faq:


support.xbox.com/.../microsoft-points-retire-faq

"Applies to US/Canada only: we will not apply taxes when you spend the currency that we add to your account at the time that you redeem your Microsoft Points card or code"

So the taxes are definitely in error. I did contact phone support. I was told "it is up to the manufacturer"? They offered a refund on a title "as a one-time goodwill gesture", but there is clearly something wrong with the billing system here that will
come up again on another purchase.

I was not able to get someone to acknowledge that....quite frustrating.

 

What that means is when Microsoft adds currency to your account which they did the first time. You would not be taxed for making a transaction. In the same link it states this

Will I be taxed on the content that I buy in Xbox stores?

We will not apply taxes when you purchase content using currency that
we add to your account at the time of the transition. However, when you use currency that
you add to your account after the transition (including from Xbox gift cards), all appropriate taxes will be applied to those purchases.

Sincerely,

 

Yes, this is currency added to my account at the time of transition. Actually, there was a small hiccup when they removed it in December and re-instated it after a few days, but otherwise it is all "promotional balance". I am aware that adding new currency
now will be taxed as it is no longer points, but these were converted.

 

Either way, as this does seem to be a billing issue you should contact phone support for more assistance.

 

Bolognese TrippIE Here's a post I made in another thread. Xbox support continues not to do anything about this regardless that the parent company MS, is WELL aware...

I'm not sure how long this has been going on, I'll check with the State Attorney's Office tomorrow, but Xbox apparently is charging sales tax for digital goods with North Dakota residents. We've been using Playstation for a decade and this issue never came
up. The really funny part, well not so funny, is that when contacting the Microsoft Store billing/support they knew full well that ND is a tax-exempt state and have never charged residents tax on digital goods from their online stores. WHY in the world would
Xbox not know this? Unreal. Well, we're contacting the ND State Attorney's Office tomorrow to find out where all those funds have gone.

 

Hey there Reeve9,

If you'd like further assistance with what you're experiencing, I would suggest calling our phone support team over at our
Contact Us page. Since this thread is a bit old, if you have any other Xbox Support related questions, please feel free to create a new thread detailing what you're experiencing. This way
you can receive support catered to you from our community. Thanks in advance!