Understanding US prices...

UkingViking

UkingViking

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I am trying to compare US and EU ukulele prices.

Are US online prices with or without VAT?
I understand that pricetags ind stores are sometimes without.

I am wondering why Kamakas in the EU seems to be 30% more expensive than MSRP in those shops I can find.
 
I think, in the USA, each State levies its own taxes, so often prices get quoted without, then add on shipping too; but I may be wrong.
Whereas, we have import duty, & added taxes, as well as shipping.
 
UkingViking said:
I am trying to compare US and EU ukulele prices.

Are US online prices with or without VAT?
I understand that pricetags ind stores are sometimes without.

I am wondering why Kamakas in the EU seems to be 30% more expensive than MSRP in those shops I can find.
Click to expand...

VAT taxes are only for the EU. Any ukuleles sent from the states to the UK/EU will be assessed for duty, that is probably the reason for the 30%, that duty has already been paid by the importer.
 
hoosierhiver said:
VAT taxes are only for the EU. Any ukuleles sent from the states to the UK/EU will be assessed for duty, that is probably the reason for the 30%, that duty has already been paid by the importer.
Click to expand...

The import duty is only 3% on stringed instruments, I checked.
If I import a uke directly from The States, I will need to pay 3% duty and then 25% danish VAT on top.

I am not sure how VAT differences within EU are handled.
A German shops lists a price including 19% VAT, I am unsure if I would need to pay a higher price than German costumers if shipped to DK. I believe I experienced this once, but usually not.

If the US MSRP is without any VAT, that explains.
If it includes US VAT, either VAT is payd twice, or the EU retailers are greedy.
 
There is no VAT in the US.

Some states have sales tax, but that would probably not be charged on overseas sales.

In any event, MSRP does not include taxes.
 
Gary52 said:
There is no VAT in the US.

Some states have sales tax, but that would probably not be charged on overseas sales.

In any event, MSRP does not include taxes.
Click to expand...

Sales Tax, VAT, potato potato...

Thanks for clarifying it.

Just courious: I you live in one US state and order from an online store in another state, do you pay the sales Tax for the shop state, the delivery state, or no taxes?
 
Ukuleles from the U.S. or from other countries outside the EU are more expensive because European sellers will have to pay for international shipping and custom handling fees, then add VAT of about 20% and finally make some profit of their own. With all these additions, my experience is that it costs about the same (or a little less) to order directly from the U.S. and pay for customs/VAT myself. This also provides me with a much larger selection of instruments.
 
Rakelele said:
Ukuleles from the U.S. or from other countries outside the EU are more expensive because European sellers will have to pay for international shipping and custom handling fees, then add VAT of about 20% and finally make some profit of their own. With all these additions, my experience is that it costs about the same (or a little less) to order directly from the U.S. and pay for customs/VAT myself. This also provides me with a much larger selection of instruments.
Click to expand...

When the European seller buy shipments of ukuleles, the shipping and customs fee adds less to the price of the individual ukulele than when I have one shipped at a time. Whether I buy one or ten ukuleles, I still need to pay approximately $25 in customs handling fee. And I doubt that shipment of ten ukuleles cost ten times that of one. So that should be cheaper for the seller.
And the EU retailer hopefully pay a lower price to the manufacturer than the US retail price, since US retailers also make a profit, so there should be room for making a profit there.
When I asked an EU retailer to order my fluke for me in stead of importing directly, it saved me a lot!

I understand that the price might be a bit higher in the EU than the difference between Sales Taxes and VAT, but if it is cheaper for me to order directly in spite of higher expenses for shipping etc. it would bother me. Off course I can always order directly if importers are not competitive. Especially if there is not a case of double taxation when ordering privately.

Perhaps my experience is from lower prices ukes, where shipping and handling fee is a larger part of the total price.
 
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From what I understand, VAT is always included in the selling price. In North America the selling price is almost always quoted before tax is added. Here in NA, you need to calculate final price (unless you live somewhere that you're lucky enough not to pay sales tax). It's to fool the consumer into thinking something is cheaper than it really is.

In my experience sales taxes are not applied for products shipped out of state (or out of province here in Canada). The delivery company / postal service may collect taxes applicable in the delivery region. I find some shipping companies are much more eager to collect every tax and duty possible than others.

Perhaps not applicable to you, but sometimes I pay nothing, sometimes I pay federal and provincial taxes. Just depends on what company is delivering it and what the value of the item is.
 
Glennerd,
Canada has a place of supply rule that can be relatively complex. For simple taxable goods purchased within Canada, they are generally taxed where the supply is delivered. So you should be charged the GST (or HST if a participating province) of your province when received from another province. If selling from Canada to the USA the goods are generally taxed at 0% (zero-rated). This assumes that the goods are taxable (some are exempt).
 
If I remember right, if you pay another Countries VAT rate, you should not be charged extra VAT in your own EU Country.
I'm pretty sure I bought something from Germany at 19% VAT, & didn't get charged anything else except delivery charges.
 
Alytw said:
Glennerd,
Canada has a place of supply rule that can be relatively complex. For simple taxable goods purchased within Canada, they are generally taxed where the supply is delivered. So you should be charged the GST (or HST if a participating province) of your province when received from another province. If selling from Canada to the USA the goods are generally taxed at 0% (zero-rated). This assumes that the goods are taxable (some are exempt).
Click to expand...

Yes, seems pretty complex to me. If I buy a uke from Mim, it's delivered by USPS / Canada Post and while they occasionally collect GST plus something akin to a brokerage fee, I've never paid any taxes from purchases from her. HMS uses DHL to ship. DHL is the only courier I've dealt with that will collect both PST and GST, plus a processing fee, and they look at collecting duties based on country of origin. The cynic in me makes me suspicious that DHL is pocketing these extra taxes, but they're probably just giving it the full blown brokerage treatment.
 
glennerd said:
Yes, seems pretty complex to me. If I buy a uke from Mim, it's delivered by USPS / Canada Post and while they occasionally collect GST plus something akin to a brokerage fee, I've never paid any taxes from purchases from her. HMS uses DHL to ship. DHL is the only courier I've dealt with that will collect both PST and GST, plus a processing fee, and they look at collecting duties based on country of origin. The cynic in me makes me suspicious that DHL is pocketing these extra taxes, but they're probably just giving it the full blown brokerage treatment.
Click to expand...
Yeah, buying from the US is different. DHL really jacks up the costs
 
Until recently, if you ordered a product from one U.S. state for delivery to another U.S. state, no sales tax was collected UNLESS the seller had a physical presence in both states. It's complicated, in part, because not all states assess sales taxes. Some cities and counties in sales tax states charge additional sales taxes.

A recent challenge in the U.S. Supreme Court may change that, requiring sales taxes to be charged on all interstate sales.

If that happens, it's possible those local sales taxes will be imposed on overseas purchases, too.
 
glennerd said:
Yes, seems pretty complex to me. If I buy a uke from Mim, it's delivered by USPS / Canada Post and while they occasionally collect GST plus something akin to a brokerage fee, I've never paid any taxes from purchases from her. HMS uses DHL to ship. DHL is the only courier I've dealt with that will collect both PST and GST, plus a processing fee, and they look at collecting duties based on country of origin. The cynic in me makes me suspicious that DHL is pocketing these extra taxes, but they're probably just giving it the full blown brokerage treatment.
Click to expand...

From my experience, it seems they can't check everything from DHL, FedEx, UPS without delaying the shipments so they often get a pass. The same is true for US customs, smaller stuff from DHL, etc, tends go through without duty being charged. I receive DHL packages from Taiwan several times a year and I only pay duty on about one in ten.
 
I just checked up on EU practice.

In the EU, private costumers pay VAT in the selling country. This is also what I usually see when I buy stuff. I only experienced VAT being adjusted to destination country once. Probably a shop used to sell to buisinesses, where different rules apply.
The rules gives the unfortunate advantage to online shops in low VAT countries. I hate to see a race to the bottom in taxes that way, bad for the economy.

In Denmark prices are usually quoted including VAT, except for in shops that mostly deal with professionals. EG. a plumber will not pay VAT on pipes, the VAT is payd on the price the plumber charges when he install them. Since few private costumers buy pipes for plumbing, some hardware stores will quote prices without VAT.

I read somewhere that US prices are quoted without sales taxes so you could have same shelf prices across different States in a chain store, regardless of local taxes. But I guess it makes stuff look cheaper too.
 
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In the US, prices are almost always without tax, and the tax is added at the time of purchase. As others have mentioned, each state sets their own sales tax; some states have none, but most have some. For example, in Pennsylvania, where I live, the sales tax is 6%, but in neighboring state of Delaware, there is no sales tax. Unlike VAT, which is a national tax, there is no national sales tax in the US; it differs state to state (and some cities levy an additional sales tax). So if I purchase a uke in the Pennsylvania for $100, I'll pay $106 in the end.

When I purchase items in from Europe and have them sent to the US, usually the VAT is deducted. Even though prices on many items are much higher in Europe, when the VAT is deducted, they become more reasonable.
 
hoosierhiver said:
From my experience, it seems they can't check everything from DHL, FedEx, UPS without delaying the shipments so they often get a pass. The same is true for US customs, smaller stuff from DHL, etc, tends go through without duty being charged. I receive DHL packages from Taiwan several times a year and I only pay duty on about one in ten.
Click to expand...

Makes sense. My only experience with DHL is buying from Hawaii Music Supply so it's never cheap. :(
 
Very little experience to go by, but I sold an article on ebay to someone in Canada. The item was around $300 USD. The buyer contacted me before purchase and asked me if I would send it to him and on the customs paperwork say that it was a gift. Kind of like the PayPal scam where you send it friends and family to get past the seller having to pay a fee to paypal for using their services. It was the same. Canada would not assess a fee if it was a gift. If it was a purchase they would. So I did that. It was some time ago. If I were to do it again I would probably decline the offer, but at the time I was hungry. I know as well that sending items to from the US to Mexico works the same way.
 
Rllink said:
Very little experience to go by, but I sold an article on ebay to someone in Canada. The item was around $300 USD. The buyer contacted me before purchase and asked me if I would send it to him and on the customs paperwork say that it was a gift. Kind of like the PayPal scam where you send it friends and family to get past the seller having to pay a fee to paypal for using their services. It was the same. Canada would not assess a fee if it was a gift. If it was a purchase they would. So I did that. It was some time ago. If I were to do it again I would probably decline the offer, but at the time I was hungry. I know as well that sending items to from the US to Mexico works the same way.
Click to expand...

People ask me to do that all the time, the thing is, they don't care if it is a gift, most countries charge duty anyways on anything over $100.
 
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