CCP Delivers Tax Breaks Along With The Great Heist

One of the changes to EVE Online today in The Grand Heist patch was added since I wrote about the update a week ago. Sales taxes and broker fees were reduced by 50%. From the patch notes.

• New Eden received a sales tax reduction of 50% in all regions.
  
  
• Brokers’ fees are also reduced by 50%, so the Advanced Broker Relations skill will now provide a 6% relist fee reduction per level instead of 5% (max reduction at level 5 will now be 80%).

The patch notes for a change didn't give more detailed information than the announcement post. The decreases are a limited time offer.

Adding to this extremely rare and advantageous set of circumstances for Capsuleers looking to add to their fortune, all four of New Eden’s major empires had previously agreed to a 50% market-wide broker’s fee reduction, and a 50% sales tax reduction, too! Those reductions are live now, but only for the next three months.

On Friday, CCP published an update letting players know that the scarcity-era would end in the 4th quarter. Apparently the devs decided to put in a feature to tide us over until then.

So if it wasn’t already a profitable enough moment to be active, you now have the perfect opportunity to save 50% on any buy or sell order you place on the market with the broker’s fee reduction. This means that Capsuleers with Broker Relations level 5 trained can pay as little as 1.0% broker’s fee on a market order, that is a 71.43% reduction from the previous minimum at level 5! This can go even lower with good standings.

On a personal note, not only does my main trading character have Broker Relations trained to level 5, but I have 9.9 standings with the Minmatar Republic and 8.5 standings with the Gallente Federation. I've been trading from an NPC station somewhere in the Minmatar Republic anyway. All I need to do is relist to pick up the benefits.

Making that deal even sweeter is the sales tax reduction of 50%, meaning that once you’ve saved ISK on placing a sell order, you’ll keep even more of that cash once the sale goes through! You can sell some of the PLEX you have in your PLEX Vault, or any other item on the regional market, and enjoy 50% less sales tax. Check out the list below for the exact sales tax that will be applied based on your Accounting skill level:

• 2.5% if Accounting skill not trained
• 2.225% at Accounting level 1
• 1.95% at Accounting level 2
• 1.675% at Accounting level 3
• 1.4% at Accounting level 4
• 1.125% at Accounting level 5

I won't brag about having trained Accounting to level 5 years ago. Accounting is one of those skills players should train early. But when I first heard of the tax holiday, my thoughts went to how the change would make buying PLEX from CCP to turn into ISK a better real-world value.

In addition, the Advanced Broker Relations skill will now provide a 6% relist fee reduction per level instead of 5% (max reduction at level 5 will now be 80%), so you can save even more ISK every time you modify a buy or sell order. This change will persist after the three month reductions above have ended.

I know I usually list a bunch of items on the market and ignore them, even if they don't sell immediately. But I'm a small trader who usually doesn't have more than 30-40 items on the market at one time. A lot of people need to move items fast, so the ability to change prices faster is important to their game play. 

The elephant in the room, though, is how the change will affect the great null sec war currently underway. The TTT Keepstar in Perimeter is a major source of income for the warring sides. While many of the major traders neglected their standings, for the next three months Jita 4-4 will have an advantage over trading from the player-owned structure. Without TTT income, will some of the major players have the funds to continue the war? And in a related note, how will the change affect Fraternity's plans to put up a market keepstar in low sec?

Now, I have to log in and get my ISK, which will result in receiving 235 million ISK per account over the course of the new event. I'm expecting an outrage over the giveaway, but that's a subject for another post.