Special Tax Day Issue!
Tomorrow, April 15 (Tax Day in the US and the half month annaversary of April Fool's Day) NCSoft will announce the next expansion, CT 2.7 "Wrath of the Collectors"
Here is your PREVIEW SCOOP, also known as "At Last Poor Castle Lords Get Rich"
The Era of the TAX COLLECTOR has arrived!
The FIFTH SEAL is REVEALED!
In each Bi-weekly 'Seven Signs' periond the game will determine which castle area each character has spent the most time. This will be your 'tax jurisdiction'. All your income from the two week period will then be subject to taxation at the tax rate of that castle. So now there is, at last, a real benefit for the castle lords, they can get up to 35% of all the income from players! Well, not all of it, since it depends on whether Dawn or Dusk wins to find out what is taxed.
Dawn wins (as seems to be the normal case): Taxed on drops. Drops (mats, key mats, items) are calculated as being worth what they are sold to NPC shops for...this is good for players, since that is lower than player based prices. So say you got 5m worth of stems and varnish and Black Ore jewel parts the last two weeks hunting around Rune. At 5:59 PM CST when the 7 Signs resets, if there is a 20% tax rate in Rune then 1m adena will be sucked out of your pocket to the castle lord. Better be sure that you got the cash cause otherwise your gear will be removed and sold for tax liens (boots, gloves, shield, armor, helm, jewelry, weapon, in that order). Note that if you get a really good drop, like a weapon, you may have to sell the weapon to pay the taxes on the weapon, kinda like real life. Win a house in a contest and sell the house to pay the taxes!
Dusk wins seven signs: Adena is taxed, you pay the tax on the adena you pick up and not on the mats/items you pick up. So we are either taxed on adena or on stuff, not both.
However, in the next update there will be:
- Sales tax on items sold
- Capital Gains taxes on Crafts & Sales by dwarves
- Gift taxes on items transferred between characters on the same account
- Social Security taxes of 1% of your net worth each time you are rezzed
- Luxury taxes on items gained from fishing and from pet usage (the translation is unclear here)
- State taxes based on fortress ownership, in addition to the castle based 'federal' taxes
So how do we avoid taxes? Well, castles that are under NPC control do not levy taxes. So take a castle with an alt clan then disband the clan after the siege is over and...no taxes!
Please note that HIGH LEVEL dwarves (A grade and above) are exempt from taxes when they do the 'Blessing of Maphir' quest, which is also open to those who Subclass a bounty hunter and raise it to AGrade. Also, Each castle lord will receive a limited number of ~Certificates of tax exemption~ equal to 1/2 of the number of characters in their clan.
Raid Bosses will drop 'Blessings of Tax Evasion' which make a character immune to the effects of taxation while also increasing the 'Evasion' stat by 10 for the two week period. You can also reduce your taxes by 79% if you get the quest item 'Shillen's Calculator' or by 28% through the quest item 'Eva's Padded Deductions or Eniesad's Fake Dependents', both of which seem to be pretty easy quests.
In the next issue: I was Anthara's Love Slave, Elvis' Buff Bot and how to access the 'French Maid' quest series...and more!