They seem to actually be charging non-US customers an extra $2 per book.
When the books that are free in the US store cost $2.30 in the UK store, and UK VAT runs at 15% at the moment, it seems pretty certain that's what they're doing. ($2.00*1.15 = $2.30 )
And apart from the free books, let's look at the top ten(non-'free') bestsellers.
Extra(ex VAT) Title UK/UK ex-VAT/USA prices
$2.00 Arguing with Idiots. $13.79/$11.99/$9.99
($0.22) The Help $11.24/$9.77/$9.99
$2.00 The Mark $8.92/$7.76/$5.76
$1.66 The Shack $12.25/$10.65/$8.99
($4.40) The Girl wit the Dragon Tattoo $4.13/$3.59/$7.99
$2.00 Glen Beck's Common Sense $10.57/$9.19/$7.19
$2.00 The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society $11.96/$10.40/$8.40
$2.00 Culture of Corruption $13.79/$11.99/$9.99
($4.65) Eclipse $3.61/$3.14/$7.79
$2.00 Outliers $13.79/$11.99/$9.99
Six out of ten have a UK ex-VAT price that is exactly $2 more than the US title.
Only one costs more, but not $2 more. The remaining three are cheaper in the UK than in the US - some special deal from the publishers? Or just Amazon's weird discounting?
Oddly enough, having just checked in the European store, prices there match the UK store but are ex-VAT. I can't imagine how they're going to do that. Perhaps they'll add on the VAT at checkout, because it'll be different for each EU country.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Ea
Well... the 1.99 USD fee only applies to USA customers downloading when out of the country. Of course prices for customers living outside US does seem higher by about the same amount but it's still not the same thing - have anyone proven it's a one to one?
About VAT, do you have information that Amazon is collecting VAT for the Kindle books they sell? I know that amazon.co.uk collect VAT for the individual European countries, because Amazon sells such a large volume that they have to - but does Amazon.com?
I have not seen anything that indicates that Amazon is collecting VAT for individual countries for Kindle books, but I would interested if they did (as VAT in Denmark is 25%  - I'd want to look elsewhere ) |