Oolite Bulletins

Since I know that a few people here are into RPGs:

A rather sad moment - after 23 years I've decided to end the Forgotten Futures RPG in its current shareware form. Since I'm now well overdue for the next release, and European tax law has changed to make shareware much less viable, I'm contacting all current registered users and offering them a partial refund or the option to donate the money to Cancer Research UK. So far nearly everyone who has replied has donated to charity!

Later this year I'll be putting all Forgotten Futures material on line without any charge, but with a tip jar for voluntary contributions. As usual 10% will go to Cancer Research UK.

Since some of the addresses have bounced I'd be grateful for any publicity you can give this - I'd hate to miss anyone who deserves a refund.

The full text of the message is here:

http://ffutures-news.insanejournal.com/

ffutures wrote:

Since I know that a few people here are into RPGs:

A rather sad moment - after 23 years I've decided to end the Forgotten Futures RPG in its current shareware form. Since I'm now well overdue for the next release, and European tax law has changed to make shareware much less viable, I'm contacting all current registered users and offering them a partial refund or the option to donate the money to Cancer Research UK. So far nearly everyone who has replied has donated to charity!

Later this year I'll be putting all Forgotten Futures material on line without any charge, but with a tip jar for voluntary contributions. As usual 10% will go to Cancer Research UK.

Since some of the addresses have bounced I'd be grateful for any publicity you can give this - I'd hate to miss anyone who deserves a refund.

The full text of the message is here:

http://ffutures-news.insanejournal.com/

This is just when Strampuunk is getting up and running? I swear the tax man doesn't want anyone to have fun these days. 2 proof of residencies with every application? That's just mental and a MASSIVE hacking Achilles heel for small gaming business. They would probably get more innovation in the country if they just took all the money and worked out how much people should be allowed to have based on what they've done. At least then people would have an insentive to produce things, the rich would get richer and the civil service would explode numerically.

This country is ****ed.

ClymAngus wrote:

This country is ****ed.

Have you only just noticed? It's been that way for a while!

OK, and (I know I'm going to regret this) I hate tax; what precisely is the law that's come in that's taken you out?

Probably this one.

yup they've just ****ed the internet to anything but "free". This has now all become donate city.

VATMOSS - it's truly awful.

I posted this as a link that explains it all and has lots of links to people trying to get the law changed:

The Beast from 20,000 Bureaucrats

Since some Forgotten Futures users may not be aware of the horror that is VATMOSS, the change in tax law which I ludicrously oversimplified in my previous announcements, see Dave Langford's site:

http://ae.ansible.uk/?id=vatmoss

So I found this:

You need to identify the place where your consumer is based, has their permanent address, or usually resides. This will be the member state where VAT on the digital services supply is due. So if, for example, a UK citizen is an ‘expat’ who works or lives most of their time in Spain, then you, as the person supplying digital services to that consumer, should be charging Spanish VAT on those services and not UK VAT.

Which I guess means that if a UK expat who normally lives in Spain pops back to the UK for a visit and buys your e-book, you have to charge Spanish VAT. Have I read that right?

The other bit I like is that if a business from, say, the US sells digital content in the EU then they have to charge VAT. I'm not sure what happens when the US company says "No"...

kanthoney wrote:

So I found this:

You need to identify the place where your consumer is based, has their permanent address, or usually resides. This will be the member state where VAT on the digital services supply is due. So if, for example, a UK citizen is an ‘expat’ who works or lives most of their time in Spain, then you, as the person supplying digital services to that consumer, should be charging Spanish VAT on those services and not UK VAT.

Which I guess means that if a UK expat who normally lives in Spain pops back to the UK for a visit and buys your e-book, you have to charge Spanish VAT. Have I read that right?

The other bit I like is that if a business from, say, the US sells digital content in the EU then they have to charge VAT. I'm not sure what happens when the US company says "No"...

Yes, it really is that messed up - why do you think I'm stepping away from it?

Phase 1 of this is now complete. I've made all of the material available as a zipped download that can be copied to a directory or CD-ROM - later I'll be setting up the site so that all of the files can be read without downloading a 480mb file. If you're interested please take a look - but it's possible that downloading will be slow over the next few days if there's a big rush.

As usual it's http://www.forgottenfutures.co.uk - to get the zip file follow the CD-ROM link from the front page.