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by f00zz 2179 days ago
> tax the international sale by %40

I'm not surprised. In general, import duties are around 60%, and that's not even the full story. The (foreign) company I work for sent me a development board once; when it arrived here I found out that, in addition to those 60%, I'd have to pay 18% state taxes. I was expecting this to add up to 78%, or even 1.6 * 1.18 = 89%, but in fact it's computed like (1.6 / (1 - 0.18)) = 95%.

Ostensibly, these tariffs are meant to protect the local industry from foreign competition. I heard that there are certain other countries trying to do the same; they should be careful what they wish for.

2 comments

That is rough. I was unaware of the heavy import taxes. But they’re the ones buying so they should pay the tax, expecting me to sell internationally tax inclusive was weird, and possibly a miscommunication with an intermediary, or someone was trying to pull a trick. I think my competitor must have done some transfer pricing with a local branch.

I understand the rational for protectionism and at the same time worry about the future it will lead to. The ability to buy just about anything from just about anywhere was one of the things I really liked about the US.

I've never seen international sales being tax inclusive. The buyer (or local branch) always pays, and they are responsible to pay the tax authorities.
As a Brazilian I think this measure is very flawed. In more than 30 years, the national industry regarding technology has gone from insignificant to nonexistent (excluding some specific monopolies with low end "junk").

These rates only harm the population and businesses that need to import technology to maintain work operations.