The best hard drives??

[Peter Corlett]

On Tue, Nov 17, 2020 at 09:36:00AM -0500, Bill Gunshannon via cctalk wrote:
[...]
>>> It also turns out that £1 ≈ €1 ≈ $1.
> Close, but no cigar. I just bought something from Europe 3 days ago.

This rule of thumb only applies to stuff imported from the USA to Europe, or
from anywhere to the UK. It also only applies to prices quoted to consumers.

> Exchange rate: $ 1 USD = € 0.8111 EUR

Since the actual rate has been about €0.845 for a few months now, I guess your
bank charges 4% over the mid-market rate. That seems a bit high.

However, as you surely know, the EU applies tarrifs on imports, and individual
countries also charge consumers VAT. Tariffs tend to be fairly nominal or zero
unless there's a trade war going on, whereas VAT varies between 15% and 25%.

So if I import a $100 widget, even if it has a zero tariff, I still get to pay
21% Dutch VAT which brings it to $121, or €102. Therefore $1 ≈ €1.

That same $100 widget imported into the UK becomes $120 due to the 20% VAT
rate, which comes to £90, but the UK has its own self-inflicted problems which
cause importers loads of extra costs and £100 is easily believable.

If I take off my consumer hat and put on my businessman hat, I can import stuff
without paying VAT and then it is just the $100, €84.50, or £75 suggested by
the exchange rate.