I pay my full tax- I don't engage in tax avoidance like Apple and many others do.
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Apple Raises Prices on Several Products in Many Countries Amid Strong U.S. Dollar
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I pay my full tax- I don't engage in tax avoidance like Apple and many others do.
I live here.They never matched the U.S.
Apple sort of did via Futureshop discounts. Remember the "an iPad for everyone" campaign before Christmas. $50- $100 off iPad Air 2 even.
I used to enjoy long weekends driving down to Oregon and buying tax free goods. The travel costs would usually equal the savings, but it would amount to a "free vacation weekend". Now, not so much.
On the flip side, we can expect lots of US tourists in Canada this season.
Apple is just faster to adjust prices up than others.
FWIW, comparing HP US to Canada pricing, Canada prices are slightly lower or no worse than parity depending on sales tax rates.
The HP ENVY x2 13-j020ca is CAD$1125 with a $75 discount incl. before tax, and US$949 with a $150 discount incl.
Yeah, they do have their discounts, but standard pricing usually sucks (usually more than U.S. even if currency is around the same).
It's not only Apple, I know. That's usually why whenever I find something I want on amazon.ca, I'll try to find it on amazon.com and see if any of the sellers ship internationally. Usually even with the shipping costs it's cheaper.
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I hear ya. Doing the same. Don't forget amazon.co.uk , really cheap shipping and ex-VAT for things like Blurays/CDs.
Nowadays, with the 20%+ devaluation of the CAD, amazon.com shopping+shipping+customs is not so attractive. Monoprice is still great, but only if you keep each shipment below the customs threshold and ship USPS, not UPS
I hear ya. Doing the same. Don't forget amazon.co.uk , really cheap shipping and ex-VAT for things like Blurays/CDs.
Nowadays, with the 20%+ devaluation of the CAD, amazon.com shopping+shipping+customs is not so attractive. Monoprice is still great, but only if you keep each shipment below the customs threshold and ship USPS, not UPS
Have you had luck finding a seller on .uk that ships to Canada for not too expensive? I always thought it'd be very rare.
On a sidenote..ugh, USPS is so painful to use. I swear they use my parcels as a footrest or something for a few weeks at the border before remembering it was supposed to be delivered.
Great. Because eleventy trillion billion hundred billion wasn't enoigh profit so they had to up it to forty eight trillion billion eleventy zillion million.
Gotta keep those pesky shareholders happy and stuff.
Gotta keep those pesky shareholders happy and stuff.
Yeah sorry I was referring to Macbooks. In actual fact iPhone 6/6+, 5S and accessories went up too I just found out. Not as much as MacBooks, but by about $100+.
It's intereting you say it costs more to live in the US - we traveled there at the end of November/early December and we found everything so cheap. Your healthcare system does sound a bit different to ours.
I can see a lot of valid theories and a lot of BS in this thread.
Being an Australian the latest Apple price increases are not something new. We Aussies have always been paying more for the same products/services since the Aussie Dollar started its life.
Australians have a reputation for being pirates and tax cheats. This is because we have some of the highest combined tax rates in the world.
For me, it simply means that I can no longer afford to upgrade or buy new apple products at the rate I currently do. I will now have to budget more carefully and really make sure I actually NEED this new shiny gizmo with an apple logo on it.
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You got in just before the Aussie Dollar started its decent. You would have been getting around the mid 80cUSD back in Nov.
I did a trip to the US back in Feb 2012, it was flipping fantastic! Was buying 1.07 for every AUD. Best and cheapest trip to the USA I ever had. Got NY fridge magnets for everyone. If I was doing the same trip now it would cost me more than 30% more to do exactly the same things.
Being an Australian the latest Apple price increases are not something new. We Aussies have always been paying more for the same products/services since the Aussie Dollar started its life.
Australians have a reputation for being pirates and tax cheats. This is because we have some of the highest combined tax rates in the world.
For me, it simply means that I can no longer afford to upgrade or buy new apple products at the rate I currently do. I will now have to budget more carefully and really make sure I actually NEED this new shiny gizmo with an apple logo on it.
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You got in just before the Aussie Dollar started its decent. You would have been getting around the mid 80cUSD back in Nov.
I did a trip to the US back in Feb 2012, it was flipping fantastic! Was buying 1.07 for every AUD. Best and cheapest trip to the USA I ever had. Got NY fridge magnets for everyone. If I was doing the same trip now it would cost me more than 30% more to do exactly the same things.
In other words, you pay what is legally required as they do. Everyone does what they can to legally (and sometimes not) reduce their tax burden.
My other products from other American companies haven't suddenly gone up by up 100-300 euros...
idiotic comments, and enjoy your massive health care bills when your in an accident or on your death bed. Maybe you can cuddle up to your nice cheap tech devices at the same time as well.......
So, after years of paying premium prices because of the weak dollar, when finally we were getting an advantage, Apple decides to make adjustments for a fair price ? LMFAO. Where were the adjustments back when their products were 30-40% more expensive in eur ? At least with the current Exchange rates the prices are somewhat equal factoring in taxes. I am curious what will happen when the dollar tanks again, or the Euro comes back up.
It used to be cheaper to buy a plane ticket to the US, go to a state without sales tax, and fly back than paying the local price (and you had a holiday added on top )
This is coming from Belgium, where 40-50% of your salary never reaches your bank account in the first place. After that there's still taxes on pretty much anything. Sales tax (6%on food/essentials, 21%on everything else - talking about pulling this up), car taxes, taxes for the city, taxes for home ownership, ...
It used to be cheaper to buy a plane ticket to the US, go to a state without sales tax, and fly back than paying the local price (and you had a holiday added on top
)This is coming from Belgium, where 40-50% of your salary never reaches your bank account in the first place. After that there's still taxes on pretty much anything. Sales tax (6%on food/essentials, 21%on everything else - talking about pulling this up), car taxes, taxes for the city, taxes for home ownership, ...
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Nope. I don't engage in dodgy offshore deals. Australians have all sorts of ways of skirting around tax. I pay full tax.
Apple does not. It doesn't pay the 30 percent company rate - it pays around 0.5 percent tax.
Thankfully the opposition government in Australia has pledged to plug these loopholes (if it wins government).
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Apple also has a duty to act morally, and tax avoidance is not moral. Perhaps if they were avoiding paying a little, but I believe they're paying 1 percent tax, instead of 30 which I believe is the law.
I just went to apple.de took away the VAT and the price of the base line 13" is ~1217 Euro. 1217 Euro converts to $1296 which is a couple dollars less than in the states. I went to apple.fr to look at the price there and it's the same 1449 Euro I can't get the other neighbor states to load so I can't check there but I'm not seeing any problems so far.
* Edit* Same 1449 at apple.es
* Edit* Same 1449 at apple.es
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Maybe YOU should check your facts before calling everybody else ignorant...
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australia__United_States_Free_Trade_Agreement
Trade between Australia and the USA is 100% free.
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Any Aussies grabbing the $24,000 Apple Watch? Watch the price of that one as the dollar and gold price fluctuates... betcha it won't move from $24,000.
Local prices didnt go up much, but the strengthening of the US dollar will reduce apple sales outside of the USA, aka Apples growth markets.
Sales will struggle to outpace anything.
If their odd generational chagnes to their products didnt kill my desire to purchase an apple, the excessive "buffers" will do that.
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Apple products into Australia are not trade with the USA.
Sales will struggle to outpace anything.
If their odd generational chagnes to their products didnt kill my desire to purchase an apple, the excessive "buffers" will do that.
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Apple products into Australia are not trade with the USA.
Wrooooong...
'The parties agreed to co-operate on mechanisms to facilitate electronic commerce, not to impose customs duties on digital products and for each to apply non-discriminatory treatment to the digital products of the other.'
And before you start mentioning tax... APPLE DOESN'T PAY TAX IN AUSTRALIA!!! They use some shonky accounting method so that all sales are diverted to Ireland.
So my point stands... it's really just the price of shipping the stuff here (from China... look at a map! We're closer to China and it's cheaper to ship stuff here from China). People forget that they are a multinational and their stuff isn't made in the USA. IMO this is one of Apple's big flaws... they sell more stuff in the USA than they do in the rest of the world combined and always have.
Anyway, in short, for Australia:
- Apple pay no import duties.
- They don't pay local tax.
- Shipping is cheaper.
- There's a slight difference between the two dollars, but it's far less than the price increases that Apple has always had for foreign products.
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You'd dare call me ignorant without understanding basic local taxes? ADD 10% SALES TAX IN AUSTRALIA...
and, by the way, the sales tax system varies by each of the 50 States...in New York the Apple price be +7%.
AND HERE'S THE MATH YOU FORGOT TO DO...let me show you how the 17,000 USD Apple Watch hits 24,000 AUD...
17,000 + 10% (Australian Sales Tax, GST)...18,400 USD...
18,400 USD = 24,299 AUD.
END OF STORY.
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I think what you don't understand is that in the US sales tax varies so wildly that Apple advertises a pre-tax price--as do all retailers in every market in the US. If you live in NY, the formerly $99 Apple TV would be $107. If you live in Delaware, it would just be $99, but if you live in Texas it would be about $106.00...etc.
The increase in the value of the dollar...have you noticed that six months ago it was about $1.35 to 1 Euro...now it's $1.05 to 1 Euro...Apple would be crazy not to correct its pricing...the US Dollar IS STRONGER against the Euro than it has been in at least ten years...there was an NPR report on how Coca-Cola will increase prices overseas too, along with other US companies...
Maybe it's because the Eurozone economy overall is a joke right now?
First thing, kick Greece out.
Apple is not fair when bases its pricing in dollar, since most of Apple products is yuan-bound (China) and most profits stay overseas to avoid US taxes. The only dollar thing about Apple comes from management (Tim Cook, most executives) and design (technical staff) headquarters. That is, only a minor portion of the product pricing is actually bound to the US dollar.
Apple charges in dollar even if 80-90% of the production has almost nothing to do with dollar.
The problem is that you're thinking it's ok Apple selling products with their prices bound to dollar. When you buy a bottle of wine, go to a restaurant, buy clothes or some chinese or local good, you aren't too much affected with exchange rates. This is due to the fact that the pricing of most products (except electronics) are not 100% dollar-bound.
It's time to change the way electronics are priced. When most stuff was made in USA, Germany or Japan, it was ok binding prices to a strong currency, but today most products are manufactured in China. The profit money even stays in China or in a tax haven.
Apple can't do that, thats the role of government, but they can actually pay taxes though.
Apple serves shareholders...it's a publicly-traded US company...it thinks and acts in terms of the USD. It doesn't matter how globalized our world is, the currency of its shareholders trumps.