LOL i remember the clip of him having trouble connecting a camera cause it was out of power and the threw it off the stage for one of the tech guys to fix.
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Steve Jobs Weighs in on iPad International Pricing and Taxes
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"The U.S. should consider using a European-style value added tax to help bring the deficit down, said White House adviser Paul Volcker"
...
Until recently, discussion of a U.S. VAT had been limited to the back rooms of think tanks and cocktail hours of high-minded conferences. But nearly every other industrialized nation has one, and the idea is beginning to spread. In addition to Volcker, the head of the Senate Budget Committee, Kent Conrad (D-N.D), has mused that a VAT has got to be on the table, and Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) has murmured sweet nothings about it. In fact, interest in a VAT is cropping up all along the ideological spectrum (albeit more often along the leftish end).
So... think up a way to bring the deficit down pronto, or else you'll have VAT before the end of the decade, in addition to universal health care. Why, it's like Europe all over again.
Max 2 iPads per customer eh? Is that a restriction in Germany only or is it like that everywhere?
I believe here in the UK, a video recorder (which would be allowed by including a camera) incurs import duty (digital still cameras don't, interestingly).
That would have driven up the price of the iPad on both manufactured cost and cost to sell in the UK.
There are a huge number of strange and arcane laws and exemptions all over the world regarding import/goods. Seeing as a camera isn't exactly a key feature of what the iPad is intended to be, they could justify its removal. Other things, I'm sure they could not.
True, but it depends how tearse and rude the original question was>
Knowing the attitudes of some of the types who'd ask the question from here, it was probably also similarly rude.
You have to pay the VAT in the first instance, company or not. You just get to maybe claim the VAT back at the end of the year depending on the state of the incoming-VAT versus the outgoing-VAT, surely?
At least that's how it works in the UK.
Yep. That's always puzzled me too. As I mentioned in one of the other threads, £399 would have made more sense pricing it psychologically under the £400 'barrier'.
Pricing is a fine art and applying blanket currency conversions + VAT + other costs is a naive formula. Apple's products aren't in a vacuum. People will buy the competition's product if they think Apple is just too expensive. In this case the iPad is only 5-10% more than the US which is actually not that big a deal on a £429 product.
Also, people are making all sorts of excuses for the extra $40 or so Apple is charging in the UK including greater import duty, higher warehousing costs, higher labour and fuel.
1) There's no import duty. - http://customs.hmrc.gov.uk/channels...ent&id=HMCE_PROD_009989&propertyType=document
2) They're shipped direct from China to the UK
3) There's no extra labour - unless you count the UPS delivery guy.
4) Fuel - we're a smaller country than the US so delivery costs are lower per delivery.
For the retail stores, maybe costs are higher than the US but I can't see it being significantly higher. I'd be very surprised if Apple just don't use a 3rd party logistics company like everyone else. If you've ever been to one of these, they're usually staffed by immigrant workers on minimum wage (about £6 an hour here as we have a legal minimum wage).
You can also claim VAT off at source, which is more usual for other European countries than in the UK. In theory if you give your VAT number to a company when you purchase, they shouldn't charge you VAT.
Should you get ill or lose your job then the UK is by far the better country to be in. Should you be too lazy to get off your arse and work, and too stupid to understand what contraception is, then the UK is also the far better country to be in. And these two together explain why we have VAT. BTW you have to pay VAT when you bring an iPad from the USA to the UK, unless you hide it very well in your suitcase (just like those Americans who order from Amazon to avoid sales tax have to put the purchase onto their next tax return but usually forget to do so).
In the UK...
Income TAX is 20% on £0 to £37,400. 40% up to £150,000. 50% over 150,000. You don't pay tax on the first £6,500(ish) depending on your marital status.
You also pay National Insurance which is about 11% IIRC. Again there's limits and exceptions. NI pays for all your healthcare and goes toward pensions.
If you're on a low salary there's all sorts of tax credits too so while the tax rates may seem high especially for the lower paid, the credits go some way to mitigate that.
On property we also have a 'Council Tax' which is paid to our local council for local services, roads, etc. It's based on how much your house is worth and it's usually somewhere between £500 to £2000 a year. Varies a lot depending on where you live.
There's also a tax on selling property of between 1% and 4% depending on value and inheritance tax.
IIRC the average tax burden in the UK is about 37% of your salary goes to the government. If you're low paid, it's significantly less. If you're higher paid, the problem is it's not significantly more than the average.
I'm sure I've over simplified but that's about it.
You don't get it. He represents a company. Thus, he has a duty to either not respond (which is totally fair), or respond politely (even if curt). If it was just Jobs emailing me about a golf game and I was being rude, fine, he can be rude back to me. But that wasn't the case.
He's just kind of a rude guy....
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KscYtJH988E
Pfff.. What about Uruguay? Latino America?
What? People in Europe are mailing and blaming Steve Jobs because the prices in UK and other Europe countries?... haha people thats super cheap!!, they should know there're worse places! here in Uruguay the cost of the iPad 16GB WiFi is up to 740 U$S (dollars) + taxes (our taxes are 22%!!!!), so our cost is a total of 903 U$S dollars for the 16GB WiFi iPad!!! nice huh?
What? People in Europe are mailing and blaming Steve Jobs because the prices in UK and other Europe countries?... haha people thats super cheap!!, they should know there're worse places! here in Uruguay the cost of the iPad 16GB WiFi is up to 740 U$S (dollars) + taxes (our taxes are 22%!!!!), so our cost is a total of 903 U$S dollars for the 16GB WiFi iPad!!! nice huh?
Switzerland?...
Ok, so what's the logic behind Swiss prices for the iPad?
The WiFi 16GB version sells in the US for 499 US$
Add the 7.5% of Swiss sales taxes for a total of ≈ 537 US$
Convert that to Swiss Francs (1US$ = 1.096 CHF) ≈ 588 CHF
So how come this same model sells here for: 649 CHF?
The same conversion for the 3G 64GB model will give you a total of 949 CHF against 1049 CHF local price...
Ok, so what's the logic behind Swiss prices for the iPad?
The WiFi 16GB version sells in the US for 499 US$
Add the 7.5% of Swiss sales taxes for a total of ≈ 537 US$
Convert that to Swiss Francs (1US$ = 1.096 CHF) ≈ 588 CHF
So how come this same model sells here for: 649 CHF?
The same conversion for the 3G 64GB model will give you a total of 949 CHF against 1049 CHF local price...
You don't pay VAT on the 16GB wi-fi iPad as it comes within the £390 personal import allowance.
Whilst I like how direct Jobs is, replying with the words "Please educate yourself" is just rude and offensive to a potential customer.
Yes, most of us know that taxes are to blame for the price difference, but if Jobs thought that this was common knowledge then not replying at all would have been the better option
If it is common knowledge that taxes are to blame then this was the appropriate response. This emailer didn't seem to know that and does need to educated himself/herself.
Everyone is so sensitive these days. Good grief ... his email was rude. Who cares? You lived through another day. He asked a question, he got a response. How many CEO's can you email? How many respond? When did everyone become a bunch of whiners?
Holy crap, I'm whining about whiners that are whining ..... help!!!!!!
Holy crap, I'm whining about whiners that are whining ..... help!!!!!!
Correct, although in Sweden there are three alternatives. You can claim the VAT back once a month, once a quarter or once a year. The once a year option is for the smallest possible businesses, e.g. people who have a regular day job but own a firm on the side to make a little extra around Christmas or whatever. If the firm is your main income, the VAT balance is tallied and declared quarterly or monthly. Which method you choose is up to you. If you want the money back quicker you choose monthly, although that means more paperwork. If you run a big "AB" company (the equivalent of "inc" or "ltd") you have to do it monthly. I opted for the quarterly thing since I hate extra paperwork.
Companies in Sweden are allowed to list prices including or excluding VAT, or both, as long as they specify which is which. A grocery store would never list prices excluding VAT, but a company that sells to both business and private citizens will usually either list dual prices, or publish two separate price lists. In B2B dealings and transactions you never mention VAT-inclusive figures at all, it's quietly understood that any forthcoming invoices will have an extra 25% added to them.
Swedish VAT is called "MOMS" ("mervärdes-omsättningsskatt", i.e. value-added turnaround tax").