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App Store and iTunes Prices in UK May Increase Up to 20%
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You just get to go bankrupt if you get health problems and don't have health insurance instead.....
That's my point. That is what destroys the "Apple should absorb it" argument.
Yes, and I agree - though if it were just Apple absorbing it, there would be riots as everything else would still cost more.
Unless the example used meant every company absorbed it (which, of course, as explained above is nonsense).
We in NY never got any emails or other reminders. The whole concept of a "sales tax" is a ripoff to begin with. Here I am, stimulating the economy by buying things in the first place, then I have to pay the state a tax on top of it?
But hey, federal taxes, income taxes, state taxes, property taxes, city taxes, school taxes, so why not sales taxes? Why don't they just get it over and introduce the "you're breathing our state air" tax?
In your example I am though. Hence my reply and your very daft if you think a 40% rise would never be passed onto the consumer.
They were required by law to pay more, they dodged it using loopholes. How would you like it if you ran a small company and paid all your taxes, but Amazon paid next to none in your country despite trading there? Same thing.
Because VAT affects almost everything we buy. There is no way VAT will rise to 40% anyway, that'd just be ridiculous.
Interesting that the UK government actually have the power to do this, assuming it's at odds with EU legislation.The Guardian said:
Presumably this means that UK-based companies selling e-services abroad will no longer be paying UK VAT on those sales? But they will be responsible for charging the correct sales tax for each one of the 28 EU states, and channeling that money to the appropriate Treasury, dependent upon where the buyer is located? I don't see the alternative: it *has* to be a reciprocal arrangement.
That'll make life fun for smaller e-businesses.
If the loopholes are legal, which they are, then Apple was not required by law to pay more. According to the law, which includes the loopholes, Apple payed all taxes required.
One of the problems with these sorts of arguments is that you're assuming that the retailer had the pricing right in the first place.
Pricing of digital products is set using consumer-friendly price points:
$0.99 for a song
£9.99 for a book
etc.
It's not just coincidence that when you work out the true cost of these things, then add on taxes that you end up with those prices. The prices are artificially set at that level.
You might find several retailers offering the same products at the same (or very similar) prices - but with each of them paying different amounts of tax because of where they are based.
When a tax increase comes along, some retailers will clearly admit that their margins are good enough to take the hit and keep the price point the same, others will put their prices up -regardless of whether they need to.
Actually, isn't it the UK citizen that avoided paying the tax? It's a tax on what the individual purchases, collected by the company for the benefit of the UK government. It has nothing to do with Apple's earnings.
It's not a case of UK people not paying tax. The single market across the EU states tax is paid at the place of purchase. The Apple Store sells goods out of Luxemboug and we therefore pay tax at their rates on our purchases.
If the iTunes store was in the UK we would pay UK tax but it isn't.
Osborne and Cameron want to change the EU single market to remove that and make consumers across the Union pay VAT in the country they live, not the country of purchase. That won't be an easy change. There are millions of cross border purchases every day for millions of goods and consumers in 28 states and will not take kindly to being told the single market will be broken to increase tax on items sold.
I'm a British citizen and I have lived there, thank you.
I could go on about a lack of rights, censorship in the extreme, lack of privacy, crime, ill-conceived immigration policies, and astronomically high taxes...but that'd be too easy.
Why don't you explain to me why it's not a joke?
Because in the UK American companies make an absolute killing with vastly, and I MEAN vastly inflated prices.
Take the iPhone 5S 16gb, in the US it is $649 on the Apple website so I guess tax not included, here in the UK on Apples website with our tax it costs $905.
So in the UK with tax I pay $256 more, and that is par for the course. I think some of you need to understand that before bloating, why should Apple absorb the cost...
I see. Thanks for helping an American that only travels Internationally every 5 years or so to better understand.
And your nationality is what......?
Because if your an American, I suggest you look in the mirror first.
I'm not qualified to determine whether the UK is a joke or not.
You made the assertion...I asked...you answered.
And how could Amazon like it if Google took advantage of the loopholes and pay even less taxes for selling the same thing from the same country as Amazon?
You do understand what loopholes mean, right? Because if you do, you'd understand the loopholes are by their definition legal and it is your government who made them possible in the first place. As long as the loopholes exist, anybody's allowed to take full advantages of it and the same legal minimal taxes as everybody else.
If you want Amazon/Apple to start paying the same taxes next as your small company in your country, then you have to close all loopholes and make it fair to everybody.
I'm not sure they will be able to do this. It'll probably be yet another example of jumping in without reading the small print and being forced to another U-Turn in a few months.