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Apple Bumps UK Prices as VAT Rises

declandio said:
If you come to the UK for a holiday and break your leg or have a heart attack they'll fix you up without even asking your name, let alone if you can pay.

Glad to be in Europe.
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Yeah, it is annoying that-

VAT has gone up.
People's pockets will be hit during this tough time.
Apple have not absorbed the increase (especially as many other retailers have absorbed the increase and now as the prices are just stupid numbers- £867 for a MB? Random!)

However-

Apple don't owe us anything, they are entitled to raise and lower prices as they wish, if it gets too high much of the competition is still good.
It is the fairest way, as VAT is not paid on many essentials such as food.
As much as we all love to moan about tax and our public services, they are excellent and some of them are amongst the best in the world.

Overall I don't mind paying an extra ~2.1% on some things to help the economy and try to minimise any changes in our quality of life.
 
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!
 
Nothing to do with Apple really, they have every right to pass on increases. Looks to me like a uncanny case of VAT Harmonisation throughout the EU, maybe because we can buy in any EU State.

Personally IF i get a new Mac Laptop then it'd be via one of my business trips to the states. :)
 
DaBrain said:
They sure do and WE are FOOLS if we let them!

20%! Like in 1/5th of additional product purchase price! Crazy!

So we here in the US think that Obama Care and all other liberal Free programs really are free. Well take another look folks at what that Free deal really costs, whether its health care or the thousands of other entitlements the liberals pass out with our tax money just to buy off your vote and to top it off, they do it with your money! :rolleyes::(
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The general VAT in Norway is 25% (!), but we pay that tax with pleasure, noting that we take care of each other in that all health-care is paid for in taxes, unemployment rates are low, and the living standards are some of the highest in the world (UN ratings). But the ridiculous spending of some US politicians on campaigns is what I think is insane!
 
This sucks, not because of Apple but because of the stupid VAT increase. This is also going to affect everything we buy, not just Apple stuff.
 
Fraaaa said:
Why?

There is no company that decrease their margin of profit to accomodate the VAT increase, why Apple should do that?

On the other hand, generally a business has to pay other people/company/services with VAT bump. So you would reduce margin of profit and you'll have also more expenses to pay, why a company would do that?
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Some companies hold their prices to remain competitive. There are many stores doing this at the moment and they can often maintain their operating margins by raising the price of other goods (eg. supermarkets). However, some retailers simply do not have the operating luxury to do this; probably not even Apple with their relatively small portfolio of goods.

When a company pays for business related goods and services, they can claim the VAT back.
 
baryon said:
This sucks, not because of Apple but because of the stupid VAT increase. This is also going to affect everything we buy, not just Apple stuff.
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Not everything.

Most food is exempt, books, some sports equipment, kid's clothing.

The reduced rate (5%) remains unchanged, this covers things like gas and electricity.

My main expenditure is rent, food and bills- none of which will change. This change is a 2.1% increase on some products, which can help the economy and maintain the UK's high living standards.
 
TheBigApple2006 said:
True, if anything the previous Labour government had brought it down to 15% temporarily at the end of 2009.

A thing that doesn't appear to have been noticed in this thread so far (apologies if it has been done) is that other major retailers are offering a "VAT Freeze" campaign until the end of January (Best Buy UK, Superfi, etc.) So effectively they are withholding raising the end-user prices for a few more weeks. This means that even legit Apple resellers, other than the shady Ebay deals, are offering Mac hardware at lower prices than Apple itself for the time being. It is a bit baffling to see Apple UK being undercut by its own official competitors for the time being!

That being said, I am glad I listened to advice being offered on this forum and took the plunge for a 11'' MBA last night!
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As mentioned in my previous post, some retailers use different pricing strategies to advertise their wares as VAT frozen yet maintaining margins. Sounds a bit like government. Even if they lowered VAT, they'll get you with a different kinda stealth tax.

MBA... v slick and sexy! Top purchase!
 
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well.. this is what happens when you don't live in the U.S. :D come on over & see us suffer too!
 
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!
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In the last 4 years also the British Pesos - sorry, Pound - lost nearly 30% in value against other major currencies!

I left England around that time, because it was obvious the UK economy is turning custard... And this is unlikely to change soon.
 
bigjobby said:
FYI: The Labour government are not in power and did not implement the VAT rise amongst other things. ;)
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ArcaneDevice said:
Wrong party.
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Ironduke said:
lol u silly sausage
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If the Labour party hadn't pushed up the size of the government and public spending so much, there wouldn't be the necessity to cut services and increase taxes at this point.

Labour would have been increasing VAT too had they been in power. Milliband's hypocrisy is sickening...
 
Jodles said:
The general VAT in Norway is 25% (!), but we pay that tax with pleasure, noting that we take care of each other in that all health-care is paid for in taxes, unemployment rates are low, and the living standards are some of the highest in the world (UN ratings). But the ridiculous spending of some US politicians on campaigns is what I think is insane!
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Or spending over 1 trillion US$ for Defense Each year!
 
firestarter said:
If the Labour party hadn't pushed up the size of the government and public spending so much, there wouldn't be the necessity to cut services and increase taxes at this point.

Labour would have been increasing VAT too had they been in power. Milliband's hypocrisy is sickening...
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In some ways it's a shame the Conservatives got in this time; they're going to get all the flak for the cuts ultimately (because people are, unfortunately, stupid). If Labour had stayed in power then they would have been their own undoing.
 
Of course if more people in the UK worked and didn't sit about on their backsides watching daytime tv and claiming benefits for everything then maybe a VAT hike wouldn't have been necessary? :mad:
 
We already pay more than just the VAT in the UK,
with a huge margin on the apple TV:

apple-pricing-comparison2.png

http://www.tuaw.com/2010/09/01/why-is-the-apple-tv-so-expensive-in-europe/
 
satty said:
Didn't know that Banker did sit on the backside watching daytime TV... might be the reason the banks screwed everything up.
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No but the amount of money that is lost via benefits makes me sick. I have no problem with people who genuinely need it. But there are many who don't. I go past job centre on my way to work, i have been seeing the same faces for years now claiming. They only turn up on claims day
 
so apple can not lower the prices, because the vat went up and otherwise they'd loose money.

it might be true, that they'd loose money, but the reality is, that their prices were completely expensive from the start! an example:

APPLE TV UK Price: 101 pounds, reduce by 20% tax = 84,2 pounds. exchange this to us$ and you'll get 131,2 us$. so how much does the apple tv cost in the us? 99 us$. that means that apple is charging 32,2 us$ MORE than they do in the US!

another example: the mac mini (that should "seduce" pc users to switch to the mac): UK Price: 612 pounds, reduce by 20% tax = 510 pounds. exhange this to us$ and you'll get 794,1. so how much does this machine cost in the US? it's 699 us$. that means apple is ripping uk costomers off by charging 95 us$ MORE.

the example shows how apple doesn not really want to be fair here, they just want to get rich by dictating a market without competitors. it's sad to see how much less worth a european customer is for apple compared to the us.
 
Daveoc64 said:
A large majority of retailers are doing this - Amazon are doing it on many products if you want a large online example.

They are very concerned about people not spending as much following the rise, so they're keeping some products at the same price.
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Apparently some retailers have taken the other approach however and increased their prices months ago so that it would just look like they are absorbing the VAT rise today.
(which also happened with the last VAT increase http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/retailing/article6972982.ece)
 
AAPLaday said:
Of course if more people in the UK worked and didn't sit about on their backsides watching daytime tv and claiming benefits for everything then maybe a VAT hike wouldn't have been necessary? :mad:
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Really, I thought it was just like that in the United States.
 
The price of everything is going up regadles macs are exspensive but most if the time they work
 
Much as I hate to say it, I think the VAT rise was a good way of raising some cash.

I think for the basics (food etc) it'll have be gradually priced in to give the appearance of being 'absorbed' by the retailer.

For expensive goods like Apple - while we might all winge, I don't think an extra tenner or so is going to stop anyone who can afford that sort of thing buying an ipad.

So, like everyone, I don't like having to pay even more tax just to buy something, with money I've already paid tax on, in order to pay for the fallout of the financial crisis.

However, it's a good way, IMO, of taxing those more who can afford it.
 
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