New Sales Tax Rules on Book Downloads

Hello Readers,

You might have heard this already if you pledge to other creators: Patreon is starting to apply sales tax to some pledges. This post specifically walks you through how this applies to your pledge for a digital download of each of Glynn Stewart’s full-length novels.

If you haven’t heard: depending on where you live, Patreon will most likely start charging sales tax on your digital downloads starting July 1st. 

Sales tax will not be charged for your pledge for The Peacekeeper Initiative (May 26), as the payment for that book will go through on June 1. However, your pledge for Deception (July 7) will most likely have sales tax applied on August 1.

Short pieces of fiction continue to be completely free to patrons.

Sales Tax Rates

For most patrons, the amount of sales tax charged on your $5 USD pledge will be very small. For example, sales tax rates in the US range from 4% to 11%.

If your local sales tax rate is 4%, you’ll pay $5.20 USD total for your pledge.

If your local sales tax rate is 11%, you’ll pay $5.55 USD total for your pledge.

Patreon has an obligation to local governments to collect this sales tax and pay it directly to them. Whether or not you will be charged sales tax depends on your location, but digital downloads are very likely taxable if your region charges sales tax on purchases. 

If you’re in a location where sales tax will be required, you should expect to receive an email from Patreon with more information about this very soon.

To Pledge or Not To Pledge?

In the end, the price you pay for your pledge is probably going to go up, though the amount that we receive remains the same.

Glynn and his team want to make sure you are pledging for the right reasons: that you enjoy getting the book early and that it’s valuable to you to get a direct download in your preferred format before the book goes up on Amazon.

We hope that you continue enjoying the books here on Patreon! But if the new changes don’t fit your budget, your alternatives are:

• Buying the ebooks on Amazon as they come out (sign up for our newsletter here)
• Signing up for a Kindle Unlimited* subscription (US site, no affiliate link) to get access to our full library

*Amazon.com may be having some downtime issues today, Thursday, May 28.

Questions and Patreon Support

If you have questions, you should be able to find answers here. If you still have questions, the best place to get an answer is from Patreon’s customer support team, here. 

Thank you for all of your support!

The Faolan’s Pen Publishing Team