Why is 35% added to goods sold in the UK!!!?

PS3 in the US costs $299 which equals £185 at the current exchange rate. Yet the cheapest I found was at play for £249 - so a 35% increase!!

The Mac Minis in the US are from $599 which equals £371 - yet here they start from £510 - again 35% increase!

Does it annoy anyone else? Why do we have to pay 35% more - surely shipping costs from China to here are pretty much the same as shipping costs to the US.

How much tax is paid on goods in the US? And why aren't the trade bodies doing anything to protect consumers from this hike?

Rip-off Britain

It'll be to cover the extra costs in this country - e.g. higher staff wages, fuel costs, council tax, and other taxes in the UK, etc of the shops or online business.

We also pay 17.5% VAT on all goods to.

You could always import stuff - or take a trip abroad

Because we are stupid and can afford it I should think.

Taxes paid on things like electronics varies from state to state and whether you mail order. Typically if you buy locally or order online from a company that has a physical presence in you state you pay 5-8% sales tax at check out. If you order online and the company doesn't have a physical presence in your state you are supposed to submit the appropriate sales tax on goods bought when you file your yearly state taxes.

On other things like food and clothes it really varies in whether you pay any taxes. Some state have sales tax on everything and no income tax, others you only pay taxes on prepared food and non-food items.

I guess the difference could be in the standard of living being higher in the UK. Its just a guess, I've never been there. My brother was working there for 6 months for his company and he said everything seemed about double the price compared to Chicago. Its probably more comparable to the cost of living in New York City or San Francisco than mainstream America. Obviously they don't charge more for the PS3 there but housing, restaurants and cost of owning a car are significantly more.

The shipping isn't the only thing you have to pay. If you have someone ship something to you from overseas, how much do you pay in duties on it? The import tariffs here from china are extraordinarily low for the most part.

That does also mean that it's far cheaper to build things in places with much lower corporate taxes then import them here. If we reduced our corporate tax from the insane 35% down to a more reasonable 12-13% we might actually be able to compete with the importers... Or if we scrapped the whole income and corporate tax system and went to a single inclusive sales tax, that would be a drastic advantage for our companies.

Tax, whats that.