Behind the scenes at Grimstead

• Estate : Beaumont
• Networth : $72,950 + $37,600 (shop)
• Business’s : Fish Shop
• Names : Lysander (age:17) Ebony (age:16)

• Clara (Lysanders Mother) (Age:67)
• Emeline (age:1)

• Tax’s – $1850

Really still not happy with the way tax’s are currently working, in their current form they simply pay a percentage of the households networth to the lord, simply because it doesn’t work for tenant’s.

Right there is no way of valuing the home for tenant and using a % never really strain’s the family, ie even a tax rate of 50% of $0 would be nothing and this doesn’t really seem acceptable as there is no motivation for a family to try struggle, even saving for a child’s future seems less important as children can move straight into furnished rented rooms with very little in the way of start up funds, while homeowners are taxed on the value of their home as well and this doesn’t really seem fair.

Logging into the round i also initially questioned if “mortgages” where also working as Lysander was able to pay off his mortgage in full after I’d paid the taxs. Granted Lysanders huge amount of cash on hand was due to the fact that many of my family’s came to the fish shop to make purchases on their turn (namely the tavern) meaning i had $120,000 upon logging in, still it show’s that the whole thing needs revision.

Ok sitting down to think about it, i don’t think there is a problem with the way mortgages work per-say the mortgage seems to be working fine for Falcons tavern, they didn’t seem to have a lot of excess funds and where slowly clawing their way out of their morgage. Granted Lysander paid his off in full this round but i have bought a lot from him this round and i don’t expect every round to be the same, besides Lysander not having a morgage isn’t necessarily a bad thing.

The real issue is the tax’s the % of net worth used to work when the value i saw in the start up screen was the total value of the family, this is no-longer the case, for tenant’s that value mearly represents their cash in hand and therefore is not a reasonable figure to use for calculations. I could make a calculation based on a sim familys earnings, either based on the main earner (the male) or on the family as a whole, perhaps making them pay a % of the familys income? again this seems over complicated and it would keep changing.

One option would be to set a tax rate based on the “class and number of sims in the household” this would mean it would indeed get more expensive the more family members a family had, making having baby’s an expensive hobby.

Peasants a single peasant male has the potential of earning $1000 on average this happens no-more than 5 days a week so a max of $5000 per week. A single peasant female has the potential of earning $500 per day ($2500) for the week. The tax rate must be manageable for a “single parent” albit HARD!! i have family’s ranging from no children right up to 6 children but it also should be manageable for young sims, who may or may not have reached their capped career level and full earning potential.

Working of a base rate of $250 per day ($1400 per week) for an adult sim, (allowing a female peasant at the top of her career to afford it), then say add $50 per child per day. How would that look for some of my familys.

Daisy farmer – (single parent + 1 child) = £300 per day – Hard to judge how much she actually earns as an employee but manageable i think.

Jack and Sable (2 sims + 5 children) = (250 * 2) + (50*5) = $750 per day ($5250 per week)

• Earnings -
  • Jack ($812 *5)= $4060,
  • Sable ($500*5)=$2500
• Total = $6560 per week.

Again tough but affordable.

Helena and Stephan – (2 sims + 6 children) = (250*2) +(50*6) = $800 per day ($5600 per week)

• Earnings -
  • Stephan ($1000 *3) = $3000
  • Helena ($500*5)= $2500
• Total = $5,500 per week

Not manageable but VERY VERY close, tbh though adding the measly earnings of their cat it would become do-able though granted it would leave the Gothiers very hard up and perhaps even losing money each round… exactly what im after Granted this in no way takes into account the “rent” these tenants have to pay on top of this new tax which means some of my family’s will need to get very creative.

Ok so there we have it…. Tenants will pay $250 base per adult sim, and $50 per child (till they age to teen) per day. Next Question.. what about my home owners? Home owners will also pay the same per family member, it just makes life easier to have everyone running off the same system the advantage of being a home owner is that they have the “option” of a mortgage and they don’t pay rent.

It’s also worth noting this base rate is going to be slightly variable depending on which lord it is etc but won’t be variable based on class, the reason is i figure merchants earn more anyway so these tax’s won’t hurt them as much also merchants also tend to have less children so over all it should mean they are financially more comfortable.

For the initial setup i think im going to go with the following rates :-

• Hamdun
  • Adult – $250
  • Child – $50
• Beaumont
  • Adult – $300
  • Child – $50
• Silverhand
  • Adult – $200
  • Child – $50
• Shaw
  • Adult -$200
  • Child – $30
• Vaux
  • Adult – $150
  • Child – $20
• Hamdun-Darkfire
  • Adult – $200
  • Child – $50

These of course are completely subject to change as and when i see how they pan out, tbh im getting really fed up of changing things around things where working great with my economy till i added apartment life and as much as i love the addition of apartments i really need to get this tax system sorted.

Ok logging out without saving i re-enter the Lillard lot and using the new system i set up the payment mod to send the tax’s to Valdemar, and which point oops i remember “what about business’s” under this system business’s aren’t taken into account at all??! eek that’s not good, still it’s an easy fix I’ll add $$$ per day per Star to the tax’s the rate again depending on the estate (home business’s will remain free)

Here we go adding my rates per star :-

• Hamdun – $250
• Beaumont – $300
• Silverhand – $250
• Shaw – $250
• Vaux – $200
• Hamdun-Darkfire – $250

No-one said owning a business was easy right?

Ok so quick calc :-

• Ebony, Clara and Lysander = 3 adults on the Beaumont estate = $900
• Emeline (age:1) = $50
• 3 Star business = $900
• Total Tax Per Night = $1850
  < /DIV >

I feel better and meaner already… yay … still it makes no change to the fact that they have enough cash leftover to pay off their entire mortgage at the start of the round oh well nothing wrong with that i guess. Bah ok with that all done i start to actually play the round.

Lysander and Ebony are going great gun’s on the whole trying for a baby with them both as family sims i guess i shouldn’t be suprised and it doesn’t take long for Ebony to fall pregnant with their second child.

The business tick’s over nicely with Taye managing the shop and Ebony and Lysander working there between the 3 of them they turn a tidy profit, even when Lysander leaves it to Taye to run for a day remotely it brings in about $4500 which more than they need to pay the tax’s.

I really like the setup i have for Lysander, technically speaking he has 2 business’s the shop and the lake house, the lake house is a business that remains closed and is rank 0, however making it a business allows me to hire townie employee’s when these employee’s arrive i set them about fishing.

The only major thing to point out is that there is not assign command for fishing, so to get around this when the employee’s arrive i use insiminator to make them selectable make them fish and then make them unselectable again. This way they will remain fishing until their needs start running low, depositing their fish into Lysanders inventory ready for him to sell.

Hopefully eventually these fishermen will be made up of playable sims who fish for Lysander much like my farms work but for now townies suffice.