Have you ever wondered what happens to the levies that are part of every transaction on the Talent Exchange?

When you enter a transaction, you will see the amount of the transaction that goes towards the levy. Currently the levy rate of the CTTE is set at 2%. This means that 2% of the amount entered gets ‘deducted’ from both the seller’s and buyer’s amounts. Thus if something is sold for T100, the seller is credited T98 and the buyer is debited -T102. Four Talents go to the Administration account (CTTE0000).

Some members see the levy as a ‘tax’ but it is better to see it as a ‘usage fee’ for using the exchange. This means that the more you use the exchange the more you contribute towards its running. Some exchanges do not use the levy but have a fixed annual or quarterly ‘membership fee’ instead. This amounts to much the same thing, except that everyone contributes the same amount irrespective of whether they actually use the tools of the exchange or not. Membership fees also create a lot of additional work for the Administrator.

The Administration account (CTTE0000) is an open account, in the sense that everyone can see the full statement of account of CTTE0000. To see this, log into your account and do a search for the CTTE0000 account. At the top left of the account record you will see a button “View trading record”. When you click that you will see the Admin’s full statement of account instead of just the overall figures that you see when you view an ordinary member’s trading record.

The CTTE0000 account has a large credit balance. This can be reduced by the Admin ‘spending’ more or by the reducing the levy rate to, say, 1% until the credit balance is reduced. We would prefer that it is reduced by members organising events to promote the exchange. Those who organise events can debit the Admin account for their time. If you have any ideas about how to reduce the Exchange’s balance, please let us know!