92% of the reason why it sucks to be brazilian

I Cast Fist@programming.dev to Mildly Infuriating@lemmy.world – 402 points –

Yes, you're looking at ~92% tax right there. Final price jumped from ~113 dollars (584BRL) to ~220 dollars.

EDIT: A bit of clarification, when buying from abroad there's a flat 60% federal tax if the thing + shipping price surpasses 50 dollars. Then there's a state tax that can vary between 17-25%, which goes on top of the total taxed value. Part of the tax is literally "tax of a tax"

94

You are viewing a single comment

Denmark. I bought something from the US. About 300 DKK. I had to pay for shipping. About 300 DKK. I had to pay the toll. I had to pay a mandatory 120 DKK fee for the postal service to charge the toll. I had to pay taxes on the fee. I had to pay taxes on the purchase. I had to pay taxes on the shipping.

In the end I paid about 1000 DKK for a 300 DKK package.

Here in the US, I bought a used school bus to convert into a skoolie and I paid $3600 for it. To register it as a motorhome I had to pay a 6% tax, so $216 dollars, and that was it. I know of a few people in Europe who bought similarly-priced US buses and had them shipped over. For buses that cost around $4000, they had to pay that amount again for shipping and then double that amount for the various taxes and import fees, so a $4K bus cost them $15K to $20K.

Danish citizens and most Europeans get a lot for their tax money and fees. Not least peace of mind and a well-functioning society that actually makes it possible to live and not just survive.

I know it's easy to complain, but as someone who lives in the US, I'd be thrilled to live in such a society. I don't have any more money left over for myself even with the slightly lower taxes. I just have to pay out of pocket for everything.