Revell U-Boat revisited

Aaahhh, Socialism! Isn't it wonderful. And my fellow Americans better not smile too wide, Hiliary Clinton is on record supporting a National VAT here. That would be on top of our present State sales taxes, which are in essence the same thing as VAT's. I wonder who the Socialist wonderboy was who dreamed up the name "value added tax". It's total mis-nomer, it doesn't add a thing to the value of what you are buying, it just makes it cost you more. I guess it sounded more politically acceptable than simple "sales tax".

Bill Shuey

No. You only get gouged for goods and services you need. For toys you merely take a pass if it costs more than you are willing to pay. When enough folks do it the price will drop. I don't know the last time one jad to have a model kit.

Dave

Bill, the VAT name is logical because it works like this, the tax is added at each stage of trading, from manufacturer to distributor to wholesaler to retailer to customer and each has to pay his own tax and as each (except the customer) adds a percentage on for his services the Value of the product is added up and each pays the Tax on the Value he Added, It used to be called Purchase Tax years ago but was worked out differently.

I can sympathize with you, but consider this: I could not find the BV

222 locally, so ordered it from Hannants', getting a good price relative to anything I could find in the states. Of course, I dodn't have to pay VAT, but more shipping instead. Even stranger, I was able to order the Mach 2 PBM from Hannants' for a lot less (with shipping) than Squadron was charging before shipping. Now, of course, the downside is that I ended up with a Mach 2 kit, but I'm a sucker for punishment. Maybe pretty soon, we'll all be ordering from each others' countries to the exclusion of in-country buys.

Mark Schynert

I believe the concept was that every time value was added, it was a taxable event. Example:

United Forest Industries cuts down a tree, cuts off all the branches, and sells it to Pine Mills Inc. A taxable event has occurred; Pine Mills pays the tax and jacks up the purchase price for its own marketing calculations. Pine Mills then processes the log into lumber and sells it to Handy Hardware and Lumber. A taxable event has occurred; HHL plugs this additional cost into its pricing structure. HHL packages 4 2x4s from this lumber along with other fixtures to offer a do-it-yourself kit, and sells it to Luther Peabody. A taxable event has occurred; Luther, as a good businessman, keeps track of that tax and adds it into his calculations. He uses most of the lumber to build whatever the kit is supposed to build, for his customer Frank Smith; A taxable event has occurred; Frank in effect gets stuck with a tax added onto a tax added onto a tax added onto a tax.

It sounds like the UK example is a lot simpler. With something complex like a car, the other system could really escalate the total taxes because there are so many steps adding value.

Mark Schynert

Are you sure about that? I thought she was in favor of a federal sales tax. If it were in lieu of income taxes that would be one of the few things on which I agreed with her.

That would work for me too. I'm easy. ;)

If I recall correctly it doesn't just happen with kits. When I was over there for a few weeks in the late 80's I noticed that just about everything from cans of Coca-Cola to Porche 911's were priced at the same number but in GBP which at the time was ~$1.5US. It struck me as odd then. I distinctly remember single cans of Coke being 50 pence at the grocery near my hotel, while they were about

50 cents at the time over here. The real kicker is that the cans over there are just a bit smaller than they are over here. Ever since then I've kinda assumed this was just normal and the way things are.

John Benson ------------------------ IPMS El Paso Web Guy

Anyone running a business in this part of the world knows that the cost of doing it isn't limited to collecting VAT. Tax by steath, rates increases and compliance all cost money. As will the distributor's or importer's cut, where applicable.

Charging what the market will bear for imported goods isn't all that 'dubious.' That's been the policy for a lot of retailers 'over here,' perhaps for simplicity's sake. Customers have been willing to pay pound for dollar. Pre-Internet, anyway.

From Hannants point of view, they have to decide whether it's in their interest to continually convert prices on all of the imported products they carry. Even with the choice available on-line, (I get a lot of my stuff direct from the source now too) Hannants still seem to be doing well with their pricing and order policies. They'll never be the cheapest or the fastest, but they're still there, and they don't seem to be too worried about the competition.

Scott G. Welch

Don't forget the duty which is payable on imports is additional to the VAT. Sorry I don't know what the current rate charged might be, but I've often had to pay a substantial amount before my parcels are released. Presumably the same duty is payable on commercial imports. Anyon know what the rate is? Cheers, Bill.

differently.

That's not true. VAT is payable only on the final sale. I run a business selling classic car parts. If I was VAT registered (our turnover is currently below the threshold at which I need to be VAT registered), I could claim back from the government all of the VAT on the stock I purchase. Cheers, Bill.

I don't know which government introduced VAT (well before my time), but it was Margaret Thatcher's decidedly non-socialist government which raised the rate progressively from 8% to the current level of 17.5%, Cheers, Bill.

Never happen. It would disolve the huge taxing bureaucracy, something that neither party would accept.

Tom

Wasn't it the Heath government?

10% IIRC