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HumanBias
Weaksauce
- Joined
- Dec 13, 2022
- Messages
- 121
You pay a single fixed Tax/VAT for mobile/laptops/PC(and equipment)No, tariffs and VAT are very different things.
VAT is essentially sales tax.
The way I interpreted what HumanBias was saying (though he can clarify if I read it wrong) is that for "IT products" you pay the normal sales tax, and then you pay a second sales tax on top of that, specifically for tech. Sounds a little nuts to me. Don't get me wrong, I understand the need for governments to raise revenue to support the things they do, but why specifically target tech products, rather than spread it out over the entirety of the market?
That sounds like a recipe for holding your jurisdiction back technologically, which is something no one wants.
What we had under Trump were tariffs against products imported from China as part of trade disputes.
They can have the same effect, essentially government takes a cut, and that results in higher prices for the consumer (unless there are alternatives that are not subject to the tariff, and thus are cheaper) but the intent behind them is very different.
Tariffs happen when something is imported. They are applied specifically as "punishment" against a foreign nation or manufacturer for practices that are not approved of in the country into which things are being imported. They are a way of trying to get the source of the product to change their ways, and show that you are willing to harm them financially if they don't.
In a freely competitive market where there are plenty of alternatives, this shifts consumer demand away from the nation or manufacturer which has had tarriffs placed on them, and to other manufacturers, harming the offending nations business. However, in a market where there are few or no alternatives it can look very much like a sales tax as it drives up prices.
Now, I don't want to make this a political discussion (because that is not allowed in this subforum, we have the soap box section in the subscription only General Mayhem area for that, but I am happy to give you my options either there or offline/ in PM's if you want to discuss). That said, the U.S. has for decades had many legitimate gripes againt China in the realms of forced technology transfers, discriminatory licensing restrictions, state-directed acquisition of U.S. sensitive technology, hacking of U.S. commercial networks, etc. etc. This is one of the very few areas of agreement between the Trump and Biden administrations, as the Biden administration kept them when it entered office.
(I hope pointing out the non-political party aligned nature of this helps keep it out of the "political" category)
And that's all I have to say about this here, as I already have a few "off topic" strikes against me in these forums
(I tend to get carried away replying to things I am passionate about)
