Apple refuses French MP3 tax

soulseek

soulseek

It's set to groove
http://www.macminute.com/2004/03/09/ipodtax

France taxes MP3 players, as does Canada, to the tune of €10 (€15 for players larger than 40GB. French-language Mac site MacGeneration is reporting that Apple will not and has not paid this tax to date. The tax law was implemented in July 2002. Apple was unavailable for comment.
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i say its UNACCEPTABLE.. we pay so much more for Apple products in europe and at the same time $1.22 = €1 ... and they refuse to pay €10 tax ????
 
I guess I'm a little puzzled - is it an import tax or a sales tax?

If it's a sales tax, the consumers would be the ones paying it, not Apple. If it's an import tax, then I'd expect the shipments to be be turned away at the border if the tax isn't paid.
 
The user's paying it, but Apple has to give it to the state, I guess.
 
As well Italy adds a hardware tax .. all hard drives and mp3 players and storage media (CDs, DVDs, cassettes etc) have a tax "because" the piratism exists. None of those tax monies goes to RIAA or any artists though..
 
Canada has this tax as well, and which the purpose is to compensate for piracy. That isn't enough for the CIRA(Canadian RIAA), and they are still trying to sue people for sharing music.

There is debate in Canada about whether or not paying for piracy even if you don't pirate makes it legal to download music for free.

It depends on if Apple is collecting the tax and not paying it to the government of France or if they aren't charging it at all. If they are keeping it for themselves then that's not right, but if they aren't charging it then I wouldn't complain.
 
In Italy I can't really imagine those tax money's going to anywhere else than to the back accounts of the politicians.

iPod itself has nothing to do with piracy. Assuming everyone uses it, or computers, for illegal purposes is like giving tickets to car buyers - similarly EVERY car owner "must" drive drunk, wear no seat belts and speed a lot...
 
In Europe most taxes are including in the advertised sales price. Therefore the customer doesn't see if Apple is paying the tax or not.
 
If it's similar to a VAT payment, Apple claim the payment from the customer in the price, and pass it on to the government more than likely every quarter. Hence, easy to not pay if they so desire.

As for 'sticking it to the French' kanecorp, we Europeans already get it 'stuck to us' :mad: with Apple's miscalculating currency conversion mechanism (must be using the same accounting software as me).
 
Oh come on, Europeans are nice :).
My ancestors are German/Polish and English.
And although I live in the US, and therefore have all the best from Apple, I think they need to keep their European product line more competitive.
 
Uroba, I don't think that Apple charges more for their products in Europe by choice. As stated in previous posts, most of the European resellers include taxes in the price. The price reads 40 euros, you pay 40 euros. Here the price reads $1499 for an iBook, I'm paying $1618.99. That's based on my local sales tax of 8%, which varies throughout the country, in fact, some places you could probably get one for $1499, as they have no sales tax. Then, given the fact that taxes in Europe are almost universally more than here, you can see where the price difference is. Granted, I could be way off on all of this, but it's my understanding of the price difference.
 
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