Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Apple Bumps UK Prices as VAT Rises

Yr Blues said:
And our politicians in America wants the same kind of VAT taxes. Value-Added, indeed. :rolleyes:
Click to expand...

Oh but VAT is coming to the US. It's a matter of how soon. If instituted correctly (no Federal Income or Federal Payroll taxes), then it would be reasonable by some accounts. And keep in mind that States will still have their taxes as well. We gotta pay for all the subsidies and the rest of bloated government. Government will not do with less.
 
JTToft said:
- Where I live (Denmark), the VAT is at 25 %...

Here is a comparison of product prices in the US and in Denmark:

In the US, the standard white MacBook has a price point of $999.
In Denmark, it has a price point of $1,405.*

In the US, the 64 GB iPad with Wi-Fi only has a price point of $699.
In Denmark, it has a price point of $937.*

*when converting from local currency to USD.
Click to expand...

We get charged sales tax on top of the $999/$699 in many states. Your $1,405/$937 includes the 25% VAT, right?
 
yg17 said:
If you can't afford the extra 20 quid, perhaps you shouldn't be spending £1000 on an iMac.
Click to expand...

It is £200, not £20, on a £1000 purchase.

Why not just make it easy and say that the VAT is 100%? If you buy something for £1000, you owe the government £1000. If you can't afford the extra £1000 quid, perhaps you shouldn't be spending £1000 on an iMac.
 
To be fair, Apple did lower their prices when the 15% VAT rate was in affect, and have seen to the recent rise appropriately, and increased their prices to match the current 20% VAT rate.

DSGi Group and other large retailers in the UK are increasing their prices to move in line with the VAT rate.

Lots of people have absorbed the increase, I know of a few local Councils who for example have had to increase their parking permit prices as a result, whilst others have chosen to absorb the increase.
 
irun5k said:
It is £200, not £20, on a £1000 purchase.

Why not just make it easy and say that the VAT is 100%? If you buy something for £1000, you owe the government £1000. If you can't afford the extra £1000 quid, perhaps you shouldn't be spending £1000 on an iMac.
Click to expand...

I think you fail to understand something here.

It is a 2.5% increase, not a 20% increase. We've paid 17.5% for years now, so the *issue* that we're addressing here is the increase of 2.5%, which, as im sure you can deduce is not £200.

If in your opinion VAT shouldn't exist at all, thats possibly something for a different thread, where you could possibly ask for people to fill you in on how economics works, and why VAT is needed in our current system.
 
irun5k said:
It is £200, not £20, on a £1000 purchase.

Why not just make it easy and say that the VAT is 100%? If you buy something for £1000, you owe the government £1000. If you can't afford the extra £1000 quid, perhaps you shouldn't be spending £1000 on an iMac.
Click to expand...

I'm talking about the difference in prices from before VAT went up and now. It's 21 quid on the entry level iMac. If you can't afford that extra 21 quid, then perhaps you should reconsider buying the iMac because you're likely more in need of food and clothing and other more important things if £21 is a burden to you.
 
Messy said:
I think you fail to understand something here.

It is a 2.5% increase, not a 20% increase. We've paid 17.5% for years now, so the *issue* that we're addressing here is the increase of 2.5%, which, as im sure you can deduce is not £200.

If in your opinion VAT shouldn't exist at all, thats possibly something for a different thread, where you could possibly ask for people to fill you in on how economics works, and why VAT is needed in our current system.
Click to expand...

My point is, where does it stop? Has it ever went down? Is there a "hard cap"? With very few exceptions, taxes are continually on the rise- the growing tax base and deficit spending are insufficient to cover the disproportionate growth of governments, so taxes go up. I ask again, when does it stop? When is enough enough? In a couple of years it will be 22%. By the time your kids grandkids are paying VAT, what will it be? 40%?
 
Not sure if it's been mentioned, but the bellyaching about higher costs in the UK is getting pretty bad.

Here's a quick breakdown using the aTV as an example.

aTV costs 101 pound sterling. Factoring out the 20% VAT gets you 84.16UK. Converting that to US dollars gets you $131.17

So factoring out any point of purchase taxes, the price in the UK is about 32% higher.

But now look at wages in the UK vs. the US. I did a quick google and found that the minimum wage in the UK is about 23% higher that in the US. Making the assumption that UK employees cost Apple 23% more than US employees, then we can say that Apple is charging a 10% premium.

I don't have all of the info to see what else Apple has to pay on an employees behalf .. in the US, the employer pays 6.2% of the employee's wage for Social Security. Not sure what they do in the UK.

You also have to add in the UK's import duties on goods vs. the US. Maybe there are other taxes on devices with flash memory or the such.

In the end, it's easy to say that Apple is gouging UK (and Euros), but you have to look at the whole picture.
 
miniroll32 said:
Apples stock is worth over £300 billion, yet they can't even absorb the VAT increase? Nice one. I remember it was 6 years ago that you could a white MacBook for a reasonable £670 - Now its £867!
Click to expand...
See the bolded part? You know what special tax stock has?

Stockholders.

MacSA said:
HAHA Yep... get hit by a car in the US, the first thing the paramedic will do is check for a wallet, not a pulse.

♥ Europe
Click to expand...

Actually, consent first, wallet second.
 
Wow!

Do you guys pay income tax too? Amazing. Thanks ancestors for escaping Europe.

Since every left of center person in politics seems to complain that taxes are too low, I guess they should celebrate. This is actually a great thing! But a little regressive.
 
Rajani Isa said:
See the bolded part? You know what special tax stock has?

Stockholders.



Actually, consent first, wallet second.
Click to expand...

Give it a rest. No paramedic will check for a wallet. All emergency care is taken care of regardless.

Now something like cancer care - they will check your wallet. Its sad that we have screwed up our system and made it so regulated that it has come to this.
 
I know, it's "only" £20 or it's "only" £10, but for a company worth so much money now, surely they could cover the relatively small increases themselves. I'd have though them [Apple] taking a little less profit for the sake of being able to say "Mac Pros from less than £2000" or "Apple TV from less than £100", which can attract customers, is worth not passing the rising VAT to the customers.

The price of Apple products is already disgusting over here when you compare them to the USA. Now, I know they're an American buisness, and they have to export them (China's closer to UK than USA though...) but I really can't see why they need to charge us that much more. I've had plans for about 2 years now to buy a MBP to replace my aging white MacBook, but everytime I really consider it, I stop because it sickens me that I end up paying something like £300 more than someone across the pond would.

And don't get me started on petrol prices...
 
Messy said:
I think you fail to understand something here.

It is a 2.5% increase, not a 20% increase. We've paid 17.5% for years now, so the *issue* that we're addressing here is the increase of 2.5%, which, as im sure you can deduce is not £200.

If in your opinion VAT shouldn't exist at all, thats possibly something for a different thread, where you could possibly ask for people to fill you in on how economics works, and why VAT is needed in our current system.
Click to expand...

Its a 15% increase. The increase is 2.5%.
 
irun5k said:
My point is, where does it stop? Has it ever went down? Is there a "hard cap"? With very few exceptions, taxes are continually on the rise- the growing tax base and deficit spending are insufficient to cover the disproportionate growth of governments, so taxes go up. I ask again, when does it stop? When is enough enough? In a couple of years it will be 22%. By the time your kids grandkids are paying VAT, what will it be? 40%?
Click to expand...

I believe it was mentioned in this thread that it went down to 15% in 2009.
 
HyperX13 said:
That is what happens when the liberals run the show. High taxes, and then more taxes. It's the same in Illinois - but not as bad as Europe - not yet.
Click to expand...

Factually wrong: (Per United States Office of Management and Budget)

Average tax rates in the US--1948 to 2008:

Under Republicans: 21.1%
Under Democrats: 21.2%

Find another horse to flog. Maybe you can join RotnApple and blame everything on poor people instead of out of control bankers ("The Devil made us create and invest in all those derivatives.")
 
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_2_1 like Mac OS X; en-gb) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8C148 Safari/6533.18.5)

SandynJosh said:
Daveoc64 said:
As others have noted, other major international retailers are not passing on the VAT increase - Apple with such high margins surely should be able to.
Click to expand...

Apple is passing along a message to the U.K. government that increasing VAT will cost more to the citizens. This will cause businessmen and grannies to riot in the streets along with the students. VAT will be lowered, Apple will return their prices to their psychological levels, and all will return to pastoral quiet in the lanes and byways of London and the countryside. The end.
Click to expand...

Apple isn't sending a message to anyone. They are just maintaing their margins. As will every UK retailer
 
irun5k said:
This link shows the historical rates:
http://www.taxhistory.co.uk/VAT history.htm

...although it ends prior to showing the 15% dip in '09.
Click to expand...
What you may also want to take into account is the income tax rates over the same period.

http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/stats/tax_structure/incometaxrates_1974to1990.pdf
http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/stats/tax_structure/table-a2a.pdf

The Basic Rate has fallen since then, but notice that between 1974 and 1980 the top rate of income tax in the UK was 83%!!!
 
Last edited:
Eriamjh1138@DAN said:
Obviously, the VAT affected everything.
Click to expand...
Not everything, food and children's clothes are sill VAT Exempt.

IMO Apple didn't cut back the VAT when it went to 15%* so they raise it twice :eek:

*If they did I missed it as to me prices stayed the same.

HyperX13 said:
That is what happens when the liberals run the show.
Click to expand...
WTF the Liberal's in the UK are not running the show at all, the Conservatives are :D the LibDems are just the face ;)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back