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Amazon Vs Apple

ThirtyThr33

ThirtyThr33

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Jun 13, 2011
278
1
Boulder, Colorado
So I was wondering.... Where should I buy my MBP because I know apple is giving discounts tonstudents ($100 off) as well as a $100 iTunes gift card for the BTS sale. However if I bought it from apple or apple.com I assume I'd have to pay tax (~8.3% in my area) where as on amazon I would not. So I guess my question is, is can I get the same gift card from amazon? Or is there any way to buy one on amazon and return it to apple and get a new one to get the gift card? What's your advice?


Thanks!
 
If you buy from Amazon, and you live in a state where Amazon does not collect the sales tax, you are technically supposed to declare the purchase and pay the taxes when you file your state income taxes. Chances are you won't get caught, but if you get audited and they find it, you'll have to pay it (and possibly get penalized).

Amazon is not offering the gift card or the student discount.

You cannot buy a MBP from Amazon and return it to Apple? Huh?:confused::rolleyes:

Total the prices for both places and go with the cheaper one.
 
Surely said:
If you buy from Amazon, and you live in a state where Amazon does not collect the sales tax, you are technically supposed to declare the purchase and pay the taxes when you file your state income taxes. Chances are you won't get caught, but if you get audited and they find it, you'll have to pay it (and possibly get penalized).

Amazon is not offering the gift card or the student discount.

You cannot buy a MBP from Amazon and return it to Apple? Huh?:confused::rolleyes:

Total the prices for both places and go with the cheaper one.
Click to expand...

yep. however, colorado is one of the states that is trying to crack down on tax evasion. i see that you are there. you might want to just go through apple to avoid the potential penalties. amazon will report your sale to the state.

from amazon's site:
Colorado HB 1193, enacted in February 2010, required online retailers to provide a detailed purchase report to customers with more than $500 of annual Colorado purchases by January 31st and to provide a summary purchase report with the total amount of each customer's annual Colorado purchases to the Colorado Department of Revenue by March 31st.
 
palpatine said:
yep. however, colorado is one of the states that is trying to crack down on tax evasion. i see that you are there. you might want to just go through apple to avoid the potential penalties. amazon will report your sale to the state.

from amazon's site:
Colorado HB 1193, enacted in February 2010, required online retailers to provide a detailed purchase report to customers with more than $500 of annual Colorado purchases by January 31st and to provide a summary purchase report with the total amount of each customer's annual Colorado purchases to the Colorado Department of Revenue by March 31st.
Click to expand...

No they wont

http://www.statebillnews.com/2011/01/u-s-judge-temporarily-stays-colorados-online-tax-law/
http://www.taxlitigation.net/taxlaw/colorado-house-advances-repeal-of-online-sales-tax-law/

granted, this doesn't mean we aren't obligated to pay it, but rather takes the enforcement away
 
Yep it seems with more and more e-tailers now selling products for typically much less than brick and mortar stores and tax free that they are going to be cracking down on tax laws to ensure they still get sales tax.
 
crypticlineage said:
Amazon.com will go to great lengths in their battle against sales tax. They have, in the past.
Click to expand...

Yes they will. I'm not worried about Amazon doing what they can to escape that. I'm sure they have lawyers on their side providing them "escape" routes. Amazon knows lots of people shop with them since it's tax free. I know I do, if they do start collecting tax, I will have to start looking else where.
 
Well it depends on which model you plan on buying, but if you take the base 15" for example, Amazon has it for $1710, no tax, free shipping. $1710 total.

Apple has it for $1800 - $100 for students, so $1700.
Then if you consider the gift card ($100) to be cash, it's $1600. $1600 x 1.083 = $1732 total to buy from Apple. (Of course the actual price is $1832, but you get the gift card.)

So it's still $20 more to buy from Apple, and I think most people would prefer saving cash than getting a $100 gift card. Either way, Amazon is the way to go to save money.
 
Kyllle said:
Well it depends on which model you plan on buying, but if you take the base 15" for example, Amazon has it for $1710, no tax, free shipping. $1710 total.

Apple has it for $1800 - $100 for students, so $1700.
Then if you consider the gift card ($100) to be cash, it's $1600. $1600 x 1.083 = $1732 total to buy from Apple. (Of course the actual price is $1832, but you get the gift card.)

So it's still $20 more to buy from Apple, and I think most people would prefer saving cash than getting a $100 gift card. Either way, Amazon is the way to go to save money.
Click to expand...

Don't you get the gift card when you register as a student...or rather can't you? Does it have to be bought from apple?
 
Kyllle said:
Well it depends on which model you plan on buying, but if you take the base 15" for example, Amazon has it for $1710, no tax, free shipping. $1710 total.

Apple has it for $1800 - $100 for students, so $1700.
Then if you consider the gift card ($100) to be cash, it's $1600. $1600 x 1.083 = $1732 total to buy from Apple. (Of course the actual price is $1832, but you get the gift card.)

So it's still $20 more to buy from Apple, and I think most people would prefer saving cash than getting a $100 gift card. Either way, Amazon is the way to go to save money.
Click to expand...

You need to tax the purchase before subtracting the value of the gift card, not the other way around. It's more like $1700 * 1.083 = $1741 - $100 gift card = $1641.

Also the gift card is for the App Store, not for the Apple store, which means if this isn't your first Mac, you've likely already gotten plenty of apps you've purchased.

Not as good a deal as it was in years' past.
 
Well the good(ish) news is this is my first Mac so I probably will end up using the gift card. However a few days before they announced the BTS sale a girl at the apple store got me all excited about getting a free iPod so I'm still a littlemletndown even though they are still giving me a gift. I also heard rumors of some people getting a rebate printer? Anyone know anything about that?
 
Yes there's a rebate hp. It does sprint but the ink is expensive and the quality sucks. Otoh it's a scanner too.
 
Why doesn't apple advertise this? I've never even heard of them giving out printers til now. Anything else they give you withnyour MBP that I don't know about? So far I gather they come with: the MBP, a $100 student discount, a $100 iTunes gift card, andna printer?
 
ThirtyThr33 said:
Why doesn't apple advertise this? I've never even heard of them giving out printers til now. Anything else they give you withnyour MBP that I don't know about? So far I gather they come with: the MBP, a $100 student discount, a $100 iTunes gift card, andna printer?
Click to expand...

you can get discounts on software too. I remember buying iWork a few years back when I got my first mac for $50 when it was originally $70. Not really sure how this works now that they have the Mac App Store... but in my experiences they will typically do discounts on accessories and stuff when you are spending a lot of money on a new machine.
 
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