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Thread Statistics | Show CCP posts - 3 post(s) |
Thrillhouse Van Houten
DIOS EX.
57
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Posted - 2013.04.07 06:08:00 -
[1] - Quote
I started a corp in Eve while I played solo with a 0% tax rate. No muss, no fuss. It costs the merest SP to gain the skills. It costs a million (?) ISK, which is not truly very difficult to gain (even less so in Eve). If you really don't want to contribute to a Corp...start your own or find one with a 0% tax rate.
We are space mercenaries but even bands of mercenaries have something taken out of their "cut" by the band leader. Sometimes before they even see their cut, depending on the band leader in question. Often times the leaders keep that treasure trove all to themselves. At least in the structured environ of a Corporation, this pilferage is much less likely to happen.
The fact is, even after Planetary Conquest enters the mix, many newer or smaller Corps won't even be participating in those things. Those Corps are likely to have low or non-existent tax rates and those are, generally, the Corps that newer players will be joining.
I agree that information about Corporate tax rates needs to be available right at the outset and needs to be very clear.
I think it makes perfect sense that NPC have tax rates. These Corps still need money (metagame) to provide the Starter fits and Starter vehicles that they provide the mercs in their Corps. Most new players spend nil on fits, so taxing their income hardly seems unfair. The only question, then, is why a player would pay 11% of, say, 200k ISK in income versus join a PC with a 0% tax rate and use militia fits?
My solution would be to make Starter fits unusable after a player leaves a NPC. Drastic, sure, but makes perfect and utter sense. The 11% NPC tax rate with the penalty of losing Start fits after leaving encourages two things: 1) players to join Player Corporations and 2) players to make their own way with their own fits and their own money. A boost for the economy, too, since it guarantees that anyone out of a NPC is spending money to make money. I guess running out of money is possible (absurdly unlikely), but a new player in a PC should be able to lean on his Corp if he is in that dire of straights. If not, he can always ditch the Corp and rejoin a NPC (free fits, but back to the 11% tax rate).
The caveat to my little idea is to make EVERY weapon, suit type and module available at Militia grade (though I feel a greater discrepancy needs to separate MLT and STD stuff). Currently, it is literally like "why use STD if I have the CPU/PG to use MLT?"
In short:
1) Yes
2) Up to CEO
3) Yes, 11% |
Thrillhouse Van Houten
DIOS EX.
57
|
Posted - 2013.04.07 21:57:00 -
[2] - Quote
Taxes aren't fixed in Eve. A CEO sets the Corps tax rate and the members pay into the Corp wallet out of the money they make. Nothing would force ANY CEO to adjust his tax rate the same in Eve as in Dust, to my understanding (I play both). The option to do so would be there, though, and bloody well should be.
@ DreadPirate Robertson: The taxes would come out of your earnings at a percentage rate, not a static number. No CEO will be able to tax you "200k ISK per match" but rather "21% of income." So if you earn 200k ISK in a match, you will give 42k ISK to your Corp in taxes. If your tax rate is 2%, you'd give 4k ISK. If it was 80%, you'd be giving 160k ISK. The tax rate is up to your CEO...the choice to join the Corp with any given tax rate is up to you.
People act like picking and staying in a Corp is a life-altering decision. It isn't. If you feel your tax dollars are being spent unwisely or unfairly...you can leave your current Corp in lieu of another one. Corp tax rates hardly restrict your freedom as you have unlimited freedom of choice (assuming your own standards aren't too stringent).
Again, newbies receive basically free everything at the outset. Taking 11% out of the money they earn for free will introduce them to the likely scenario of being realistically taxed by any PC they join. A Corp that sets its tax rate too high will lose members or not attract new members or both. A Corp that sets its tax rate too low will likely have members flocking to it, but may not be able to fund its conquests.
A newbie gaining 200k ISK per match versus 178k ISK per match is, in practice, insignificant. A person could go through dozens of games before even realizing that they are being taxed (if nothing says you are...but it should say you are). For a guy using free suits, the numbers are easy come, easy go. They aren't spending any money anyways. Starter fits should be unlimited, but there is no reason they need to be entirely "free" in the sense that you get as many free fits as you want as long as you pay your NPC taxes. Fair enough. |
Thrillhouse Van Houten
DIOS EX.
59
|
Posted - 2013.04.09 22:07:00 -
[3] - Quote
I feel like people get really stuck on the word "mercenaries." Mercs don't HAVE to be unkempt, five o'clock shadow scratching, rumpled 10-day unwashed combat fatigues wearing, lawless badasses. The only requirement that needs to be satisfied in order to be called a mercenary is that you get paid to perform an action (usually combat) for someone.
A Merc Corp (Corporation is a word in which its typical members are usually called "employees") is merely a collection of people getting paid to fight for an employer. Why an individual mercenary should absolutely not be subject to having a portion of their "cut" of the contract payment withheld for the good of the Corp is beyond me. As I pointed out before, I'm sure many "real" Merc bands had their individual shares reduced by ridiculous amounts by greedy leadership and quite often.
If you want to be the hard-assed rogue you picture when you hear the word "mercenary" simply join a Corp with a 0% tax rate. There. You're a "Mercenary" and not an "Employee" or a "Soldier." Your desire to be YOUR ideal of a Merc shouldn't prevent other people from voluntarily joining Corps that charge a tax rate, though. Any realistic CEO that plans to involve their Corp in Factional Warfare and Planetary Conquest is going to NEED serious dough to do it. We can't all get hired by richer, bigger PCs or Alliances and those richer and bigger PCs will inevitably need to lean on their individual Corpmembers to make ISK. If their chosen method is by tax rather than selling salvage, more power to them.
Once the player market opens up and Planetary Conquest enters the mix, I imagine the bulk of ISK generation WILL come from PCs that own districts making and selling biomass OR the resale of salvaged goods. Keep in mind that the term Contract is not solely applied to a NPC paying a player to fight in pub matches. A wealthy Eve or Dust alliance may very well hire out smaller or niche Corps to fight in their battles. They will pay a Contract and the PC they are paying will be making ISK completely independently of anything CCP has set up. Income taxes would come out of that contract fee at the exact same percentage as out of a fee garnered from a NPC entity. |
Thrillhouse Van Houten
DIOS EX.
59
|
Posted - 2013.04.10 07:01:00 -
[4] - Quote
B Team wrote:Thrillhouse Van Houten wrote: As I pointed out before, I'm sure many "real" Merc bands had their individual shares reduced by ridiculous amounts by greedy leadership and quite often. You might want to actually look at what happens rather than just being "sure". Most mercenary corporations these days give set wages + bonus, not take some sort of tithe from the group. Over history, not paying the mercenary corps you hired was a good way to find yourself having to fight them. Didn't happen often, and certainly not more than once by anybody.
Are you "sure?" Practice what you preach.
I never said that the organization contracting the mercenaries wouldn't pay, I said that the group leader OF the mercenaries might skim a little off the top. Very different.
Most mercenary corporations "these days" still have in-house fees and overhead. Gotta pay for the gas for those armored vehicles, right? The mercs in the group aren't going to bust out their wallets, right? So the boss has to pay, right? He doesn't pay out of his share, does he? No. He pays out of the total negotiated fee that the mercenary group has contracted for. In essence, each member pays a little bit out of his share of the total in order to pay for the gas, the bullets, the vehicles, etc...Once all those expenses are met, then each member would collect his money. So it is collected out of the negotiated contract that means it isn't a tax? Isn't that what a tax is? So if it didn't show the tax being collected, and you just received your nominal fee...would that be better? Like in "real life?"
You don't like calling it a tax? Call it a "withheld stipend" or some damn thing. It amounts to the same thing. The leader of the Corp needs money to pay for stuff for the Corp...he doesn't pay from his own pocket (nor should he) he asks each member to contribute a fair share and then uses that money to pay. A "Corp Tax" if you will... |
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