The base NPC Tax on a POCO in Empire is 10%, which you can bring down to 5% with rank V in “Customs Code Expertise”. I figure most casual PI players will get rank IV, leaving them with a 6% tax.
I configured my POCO with 0% Corporation Tax, allowing an Alliance Tax of 0%, and all the remaining Access to be based on standings. Neutral, Bad and Terrible standings were given a 3.5% tax rate, and Good and Excellent Standing was given 1.5% tax rate.
The show info on my own POCO displays (10 – Customs Code Expertise)%, which is what I was expecting.
The show info on my POCO from my Alt in another Corp but within the same alliance is showing (1.5 + 10 – Customs Code Expertise)%, which is not what I was expecting.
I figured on average the people using the POCO would pay around 9.5% tax in total, with me getting a small slice. I didn’t do this as a money spinner, and hopefully no one would be too offended with that approach.
The Interbus CO’s are set now with a 17% tax. Even though I have ranks in Customs Code Expertise, that doesn’t change the tax rate in the Show Info screen. Unless it is a bug, I assume that means if I want to use one of them, I will need to look at launching off the planet instead of going via CO.
Just looking around locally the tax rate other POCO’s are being set at is 10%. (The default.) Add the average NPC tax most people will be paying of 6%, and the price of using those will be 16%, near enough the same as Interbus.
It will be interesting to see how it all settles down. I’ve made around 5M in taxes on the 3 POCO I own so far, which I was surprised by to be honest. They might pay themselves back over time. Going forward I can see I am going to have to change my entire PI chain. In particular I am going to need to ensure on planets I don’t own the CO/POCO on, that I export T2/T3 products via launching, and not moving the T1 via CO to a central factory system as I generally do now.
I’m not expecting my POCO to get much attention, given their tax rates, location, and the planet types they are on. I do suspect overall PI will be less lucrative in Empire, possibly by a fair margin. I will about halve my volumes, and require a bit more effort to manage even that. At least the option is still there for me to dabble in it though.
Evehermit 
Have done exactly the same, presuming people regularly doing PI get the skill to IV. Hopefully it’ll keep the wars away (…)
Nobodies used mine yet though. Do you know if people without standings can use it by default? I can’t see a setting.
To have other people access your POCO, you need to have the “Allow Access with Standings” option selected. Then you set the tax rate against each standing bracket from 0 to 100%.
Depending on the location and class of planet, you might actually find very few, if anyone, uses it!
When other players do a show info on your POCO, they will be shown the Tax rate they will be charged – including the NPC tax, to export goods from it. If set lower than the other POCO in the area, over time you might find people move to it, giving you more business than you had before.
I’ve paid some good amount in PI Taxes so far on planets I had PI that someone else setup their Customs Office at. In really looking so far the tax vary from 7-19%. I don’t mind using or paying for service at a low percentage rate. But it does get a motivating feeling to do something with double digit tax % rate.
Yet i’m not all up to speed as to how the POCO new Tax rate work as yet either. On some I was wondering if my new Skill in Custom Code Expertise was even working due to the varying rate on the Taxes seen.
You can set different tax rates on each POCO you own if you want – so using one POCO from a Corp might give you a 7% tax, and the next POCO might give you 27%. It can also be changed at any time, so it is something you are going to have to pay close attention to.