Digital products aren’t treated the same as physical with VAT up there? How intriguing.
Right now, I don’t have to pay any taxes on my digital purchases from Blizz (game time, pets/mounts/etc.), at least not in Ontario. So the cost shown is the cost I pay. But some provinces I believe then pay taxes on top of the purchase price 
I’m sure it won’t be long before we end up having to pay the taxes on this sort of stuff too, but it is what it is. I might add my voice to the thread in the General forums.
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Right, maybe not from Blizz. But from any enterprise that has a physical location in Canada, if I’m not mistaken? Is their practice of selling digital product not treated the same as physical?
Granted I’m wholly accustomed to not paying the sticker price already, as is US commerce, but. 
It changes province to province and on how each province defines “products vs. services” It’s definitely confusing and I won’t pretend to totally get it all the time myself! So some “goods and services” get charged a separate tax (if they fall into one of those categories) and some goods are also tax exempt but only up to a certain price too.
Basically, it’s sorta like winning the lottery when you go to the store, buy a few things and see that you were only charge 1cent for taxes when on your other trips it like $13 on a $100 bill.
I try to remind myself that we’re a smaller populated country trying to live with big population spending 
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What I’m now concerned about, what if the $21.99 cost, gets taxed so we have to pay even more to play this game.
I do understand why Blizzard is doing this, assuming us actually paying the subscription, doesn’t get taxed on top of the increase.
But like why now? Not in July when the tax changes actually happen?
From the post in GD it looks like they are phasing the price-change in. This price change only applies to blocks of time ATM and not subscriptions.
The change also applies when converting a game token to Battlenet Balance.
That would be completely out of Blizzard’s control though. They don’t get to dictate what goods or services get taxed here, so if a province or territory implements a tax, that’s on our government.
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It is not a tax thing. Like the U.S., tax is applied at the transaction, not on the price. Second, the change only applies to game time, not subscription. It feels… off putting… that Blizzard seems to be encouraging subscriptions over direct game time purchases. Two prices for the essentially the same service. Buy a sub, let it go through, then cancel to pay for game time now to not pay more.
While tax isn’t normally included in the price; from an accounting standpoint the tax money Blizzard will be forwarding to Canada from these transactions could be included in the price at least on the consumers’ end.
It’s probable that the increase is for the tax and that internally it will be broken down in their books to the game time cost and then tax. Just because it’s presented as one amount doesn’t mean that when they are doing their accounting the difference isn’t still the tax.
The tax isn’t happening until next July though.
The new rules applying to supplies of cross-border digital products or services become effective July 1, 2021.
- GST/HST on digital and other supplies made by non-residents. To level the playing field, the government proposes that foreign-based vendors selling digital products or services to consumers in Canada be required to register for, collect and remit the GST/HST on their taxable sales to Canadian consumers. Other transactions involving non-resident suppliers will also be subject to GST/HST. These changes are effective July 1, 2021.
this seems like a question which would best be directed towards your politicians.
blizzard have nothing to do with their decisions.
(and quite honestly, even if blizzard did decide to raise their prices, why would it be an issue? how many other companies still sell things at the same price they did 15+ years ago?)
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this has nothing to do with our politicians though - there have been no changes in that regard - any changes being made aren’t in effect until next July.
so if i’m reading this correctly, people will be getting MORE battlenet balance than they previously would if they buy a token ingame… and they’re still grabbing their pitchforks?
there’s clearly something i’m not understanding.
i’ll see myself out.
wouldnt be trudeau if it is a provincial tax , ontario still shows 18.99 so if it is a tax it is not federal
Yeah. Wrong forum to troll.
I too find it odd that subs are less than block time. Part of me wonders if this is to push people to subs thus showing reoccurring revenue on the books? Honestly do not know.
The Subscription is not changed, what’s changed is the Game Time. I didn’t even know Game Time was a thing before today, always went with Subscription anyway.
The price for Subscription remains the same. Game Time and Subscription are two separate things apparently.
They need to explain the change only applying to game time purchases because if Canada is seeing a different charge for game time purchases versus subscriptions… then ALL countries should be seeing it as well.
If it is indeed a change due to VAT or what have you, it should apply to both game time purchases AND subscriptions… and if it’s Blizzard’s way of making on-going payments cheaper than game time purchases… then it should be happening globally not just outside the US.
Their deployment of this only brings questions as to the change because it doesn’t add up.
I don’t understand the logic behind this - given the fact that if an area in the world get their price change due to tax changes there, than the rest of the world should follow suit? I don’t understand the logic here as Blizzard isn’t going to force areas in the world that doesn’t follow a given area laws.
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To be fair, Australians get different prices much more often than Canada. That is due to the exchange rate.
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