Quote:
Originally Posted by Xenophon
it's levied on top of all the other federal and state liquor taxes...
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Taxes on top of taxes should be prohibited by some sort of rule that is in effect for he entire world. If you buy something in the US, costing $300, and $50 to ship, and import it into the Netherlands, you pay:
Product: $300
Shipment: $50
Clearance: $14.64
Import tax: 4.2% at least
VAT: 21% (on top of everything, including shipping, clearance, and import tax)
Total: $459
So that's about $109 in taxes, most of which is VAT. IMHO, Import tax and VAT should only be levied over the original purchasing price, and NOT on top of one another. The difference:
Product: $300
Import tax: 4.2% ($12.60)
VAT: 21% ($63)
Shipment: $50
Clearance: $14.64
Total: 440.24
Difference: $18.76
It's not a really big difference, but the more expensive the product and the higher the shipment costs, the bigger the difference becomes.
IIRC, it's the same with environmental taxes; they are levied on top of the price you pay for use of gas, water, and electricity, and VAT is calculated on top of everything (including the environmental tax).