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(...) Clarifying a bit: The tax you're referring to in the EU is VAT (Value-added tax), which is a percentage of every item you buy; it varies among countries and items, in my country it is currently 19% for LEGO - I would not be surprised if it (...) (21 years ago, 14-Jan-04, to lugnet.general)
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| | Re: Lego prices?
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(...) That's interesting. So, in the EU the tax is included in the price tag/sticker, but disclosed in the receipt? Things tend to be a bit more dynamic here in the US so that's not as easy to implement. The sales taxes actually vary from state to (...) (21 years ago, 14-Jan-04, to lugnet.general)
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| | Re: Lego prices?
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(...) Weeeeelll... Yes and No. It is basically a patent issue handled by a certain danish company that prevents clones and therefor competition in the european markets. If you violate the patents, the courts get involved, so if seen from a certain (...) (21 years ago, 14-Jan-04, to lugnet.general)
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| | Re: Lego prices?
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(...) That could go a long way to explaining your price differences. Government supported monopolies always charge higher prices because they can. Around here, the lower priced clones seem to get about equal shelf space, which exerts a significant (...) (21 years ago, 14-Jan-04, to lugnet.general)
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| | Re: Lego prices?
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In lugnet.general, Pedro Silva wrote: <snip> (...) I just came across this site: (URL) around here, and one finds that health care is paid for (I think my health plan co-pay just went up to $25 per visit, in addition to the premium taken out of my (...) (21 years ago, 14-Jan-04, to lugnet.general)
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| | Re: Lego prices?
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(...) To cut a long story short, VAT is not meant to fund healthcare. VAT is used for "financing" the EU and is redistributed in the form of (mainly) agricultural subsidies, but also the "convergency funds" that have allowed for infrastructural work (...) (21 years ago, 14-Jan-04, to lugnet.general)
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(...) Yes, that is my experience. For instance, the supermarket bill has the full price of every item, with the VAT percentage ahead of it. The total then has another line to say how much VAT is being paid. VAT can be returned if you're reselling (...) (21 years ago, 14-Jan-04, to lugnet.general)
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(...) This is not strictly true, as we have had VAT in Sweden since the fifties, and EU is not that old :-) The VAT is a tax on sales, and the money drawn in can be used for anything by the government. OTOH, EU has regulated VAT for its member (...) (21 years ago, 14-Jan-04, to lugnet.general)
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| | Re: Lego prices?
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(...) It was known as "EEC" from 1957 until 1992, then "EC" until 1995 - so technically, you're correct: the "EU" isn't that old. :-) Is it possible that this is a mere coincidence? Before we joined the EEC we had a similar sales tax (with a (...) (21 years ago, 14-Jan-04, to lugnet.general)
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| | Re: Lego prices?
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(...) I'll rescind the bit about health care, but there are still other services that VAT and other taxes pay for. Remember, we don't know what kind of taxes your retailers are paying. If they have to make up some of that burden on the retail price (...) (21 years ago, 15-Jan-04, to lugnet.general)
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(...) I'm not quite sure if this is really the case. In Denmark our VAT (its called MOMS here) have been 25% on all sales, all commodities since before we joined the EEC in 1972, and it still is. It is used as a part of the state finances together (...) (21 years ago, 15-Jan-04, to lugnet.general)
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(...) I have to disagree here. They can be used for anything. It might be true for Portugal that the bulk of VAT is used to finance the Portugeese contribution to EU, but that is the choice of Portugal, it is not the case in Denmark. What is common (...) (21 years ago, 15-Jan-04, to lugnet.general)
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| | Re: Lego prices?
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(...) True, it is a tax used for all kinds of expenditures. (...) That's not true. The EU gets a cut from VAT, but only a small part. I found figures for Germany in 1998 where the amount transfered to EU is about 20% of the total of VAT, and this (...) (21 years ago, 15-Jan-04, to lugnet.general)
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| | Re: Lego prices?
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(...) Then I stand corrected, regarding Denmark and possibly other memberstates too. Thanks to Arne as well for his input. Out of curiosity: where is the danish contribution for the EU drawn from? Of course I now have to ask exactly why we're paying (...) (21 years ago, 15-Jan-04, to lugnet.general)
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(...) "Small" in Germany is "big" in our context. A more significant portion of our VAT goes to Brussels, the fact that it later comes back notwithstanding. (...) You can sentence that in the plural. If I once thought agricultural subsidies were a (...) (21 years ago, 15-Jan-04, to lugnet.general)
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(...) Yep, I think the Danish system is modelled after the Swedish one, long before anyone was a member of the EU. We also call it MOMS (and before that was OMS). (...) It's the same in Sweden (except for food and building materials, which are (...) (21 years ago, 15-Jan-04, to lugnet.general)
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| | Re: Lego prices?
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In lugnet.general, Pedro Silva wrote: <snip> (...) Yep, I meant VAT. I think Hong Kong has "GST" which is the same thing, and they advertise that you can get some of that money back somehow if you are a tourist. (...) Can't argue with that. But we (...) (21 years ago, 17-Jan-04, to lugnet.general)
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