Lot Taxes Too High!!
I've been playing TheSims since day one of the original game on the PC. So, I'm a long time fan of the franchise, and I have enjoyed the games very much. I'm probably even one of the very few who als...
Forum Discussion
@Josulyhar How high are your bills? My bills got ill-proportionally high at one point when I had lots of valuable items (in my case it was mainly produce) in my household & personal inventories. When I reduced those inventories with this in mind my bills became proportional.
One home I have is up to 50k, and I only have 4k. I can't even play that family anymore cause I have to have the bill paid in a day. There's no way I can make that much in time, so I'm gonna have to kick them out and delete the lot. I've seen some people who have said their bills are up in the 100-400k range. In my opinion, these lot taxes just add a more frustration element to a game that's supposed to just be fun and relaxing. Sure it's supposed to "Sim"ulate real lives, somewhat, but come on. I understand utility and other bills in-game, but lot taxes? What the hell for? The lot taxes put a huge damper on anybody who just wants to build big places and play cause unfortunately the families only start out with 20k, nowhere near enough to pay the first bill that's bound to come. At least not without cheating, and I really don't wanna have to do that.
@Josulyhar Isn't it bills, not just taxes, or am I confusing something? Hopefully I'm talking about the same thing. I love to garden and have uploaded a bunch of my plants to the gallery under the same user ID I have here. If you want to download the perfect dragonfruit plant into your game 4-6 times you could keep it indoors so it bloomed all year. Harvest and sell the fruit and this should help a great deal. I also have other high-ticket (for selling) plants in the gallery.
If you read at the link I posted in my last reply, I apologize as this would be a repeat of some of the info, but it is my personal 'cautionary tale' on my bills lesson:
I have noticed that a huge inventory of valuable harvestables that were in both the personal inventories and the household inventory gave one of my Sim households a HUGE household bill. I about fell off my chair when their household bills came due at over $65,000! It turned out that this was mainly caused by the stockpile of valuable harvestables in both the personal inventories and the household inventory. It took me at least two hours to sell all of their produce, but that was the issue! Their next bills were reasonable… and after I sold all of the produce, they were millionaires!!!
- @SheriGR my Sims still have all their stuff in their inventories. I did not see any differences in bills when they have it or not. But I need to check it out more thoroughly. Like I stated, I managed to graft a branch of the money tree onto an garlic plant, that my sims also grow indoors. Any time they harvest and collect it, instead of selling it, the bills stay the same.
As a matter of fact many of my households need to buy safes to stash the surplus they gain by collecting the interest on their wealth. It can go up to 500.000 per Sim per week.
The plot taxes that came with Eco Living are a different order. In my experience this tax relates to the Eco friendliness of the house, the plot and the household goods.
Having electric lights instead of candles causes the tax to increase. As does televisions, computers etc. You need to make the electric equipment more energy sufficient, the toilets, showers and baths safe more water etc. These actions also lower the plot taxes. Than of course you should watch out not to use the more industrious materials. In the build mode you will see if these materials will heighten or lower the ecological footprint of the plot. More industrious materials tend to give a surge in plot taxes.
So all in all household bills and taxes combined make up for the end bill that each household needs to pay.
When your household does it economically and ecologically right it will receive refunds on the end bill.@Trismagistos
Haven't tested it thoroughly since the bills update since it's been broken ever since, but in the past things in your inventory didn't count towards your bills. I'm assuming that part is the same.
I had a sim who had a cheaper lot, bills were around 2K I think. She won the lottery and suddenly had a million. I decided to stash all of it away and continue playing, so I made a vault and stashed the full million in there. The instant I did, my bills went up an additional 45K. Having the money on me didn't increase it, but as soon as it became part of my lot, it did.
The latest update is better but its still broken. Power and Water don't count towards your bills in any way, positive or negative. The only way surplus power and water helps is when you click to sell the surplus... which it should be doing automatically if set that way, only it doesn't. If you have a negative power or water, it never counts on your bills. Mine reached max negative and just stayed there, never adding to my bills.
I'm still using that mod by zhan. That still works just fine.
I have read some of the solutions regarding the high tax bill. These are not the point. I do not pay tax every week or month or year on my belongings just when I initially buy them in the real world. One should not have to clear out their inventory or cheat or alter the way they live because of the way some people perceive life. If you want the real world apply tax inclusively at time of purchase and leave it alone. I too enjoy this game, it is my downtime and I no longer find it enjoyable due to these taxes. My sim has a simple life in the science career, she should not have to clear out inventory especially since she needs it for her work. Now she has twins and I find I can't expand the house without cheats, or pay a bill.
Well, I made a mod on MTS that accounts for the latent power drain on the new lots. The appliances still seem to drain power at a higher rate than the other worlds though.
I thought since they re-did the billing system that it would work better but it's been buggier than ever. I think the entire system needs another re-design.
