bandolin opened this issue on Jan 12, 2009 ยท 25 posts
svdl posted Tue, 13 January 2009 at 10:45 AM
I can only speak for the Netherlands - there are no such "hidden taxes". There are taxes, certainly, import fees, VAT, but they're well documented. I've done those calculations, and still it means that an Apple computer sold in he Netherlands gives 10% more profit to Apple than the same machine sold in the US. And Adobe makes almost 30% more on a license of Photoshop CS4 sold in the Netherlands than on one sold in the US. I DID include the import fees in the calculations.
When it comes to hardware or software imported from non-US countries, the story is far different. A US citizen pays the same amount for a Taiwanese mainboard as a Dutch citizen (excluding VAT, of course).
MikeJ, the complaint was not about the prices of high end 3D software, the complaint was about the fact that as a Brit or EU citizen you pay almost twice as much for the same software than as a US citizen, a price difference that cannot be fully accounted for by import/export fees and VAT differences.
The pen is mightier than the sword. But if you literally want to have some impact, use a typewriter