Conversely, what's the point in just throwing out some numbers?

they are a private company, they dont need to give all these information

besides, it makes people wonder more and more

Do u mean when someone from US buy a region restricted game and gift it to u...
you can play that game even u belongs in the restricted region?

yes

He'll just use a VPN, buy the region restricted game and gift it to you.

Yes.

For instance, I have quite a number of region restricted games (ie. Rockstar games, previously)

Now the region restricted games I have are basically Sid Meier's Pirates! and Sid Meier's Railroad. Bought them for less than USD0.75 each.

last i heard from EPIC, which 1 of the 1st game ever to do promotion in steam (Unreal Tournament 3) with raise of 800% of sales.
that wat drag other dev to use steam to make promotion.

Also, it will attract a lot of tax issues.

My assumption is that Valve is only paying taxes in US.

Valve's revenue from Steam is derived globally.

Are you insinuating that Valve are doing tax fraud? What the hell?

You only pay taxes for where your country belongs to... You expect Valve to pay Malaysian taxes is it?

if i use VPN and buy if for myself instead of gift, will it be the same?

I didn't say they are doing tax fraud.

I said it may attract the attention of tax authorities from different countries.

Ie. VAT and etc.

There are many different types of tax ranging from import duties to VATs.

It can be done.

Did that before.

That sounds like some kind of fraud right there. Again this insinuation is rather uncalled for.

I did it with a normal proxy and with my friend credit card but it's kinda risky if Steam found out and they can ban your account so I decided not to do this and rather ask my friend over US/Europe to get it for me..well a small tips normally works

No, to prove it is a tax fraud, tax authorities (in Malaysia, country dependent) would need to prove two things at the very least:

1. Negligence
2. Deliberate in avoiding tax.

The above is extremely hard to prove.

Then they'll need to get a warrant.

Thirdly, many tax authorities are not well versed in how to deal with intangibles especially when it comes to cross-borders.

And then there is a Permanent Establishment issue.

I never implied Valve is committing tax fraud, I implied that there might be several tax risks.

The risk being?

Read Income Tax Act 1967, Custom duties, OECD transfer pricing guidelines, OECD intangibles, Double taxation agreements with US.

I do not have the time to list it down unless you are willing to pay me my hourly rate.

Sigh

My point is, you're making it sound like Valve are trying to "hide" something. If there is nothing illegal, then why should this be an issue? Just because a country is unaware or has insufficient skills in dealing with internet businesses, does that mean Valve don't have to cater to them?

I know you're in the tax industry (Official term?) and I'm not trying to teach you stuff about that (No one likes others teaching them about their own job)... But to the common layman, that is the impression you're giving me based on your tone, which I find quite harsh to say the least.

This post has been edited by H@H@: Apr 22 2011, 10:37 AM

I am not saying Valve is trying to "hide" anything.

It is not illegal.

I am saying that sometimes tax authorities will look at things even if they do not understand the implications or the business. Most of the time, they'll just ask for documents to understand the business better before even asking tax returns and so on. If not applicable, they'll just leave it alone, if applicable then they'll just have a discussion with the company / representative.

Being exposed to tax risk is normal, majority of business have tax risks.

i see... thank you very much...

Alright, based on this understanding, why could this serve as a reason as to why Valve are withholding sales figures?

I'm not being snarky here... I am just curious now.