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Comment by errnoh | Hacker News Reader

Seems to be €699 in Europe ($750)

(edit: This price does not include shipping.)

That price includes VAT. According to google 599 USD is 557 EUR. Add VAT to that, e.g. Finnish 24%, and you get 691 EUR. Not that far from the 699 EUR listed price.

You don't add Finnish 24% VAT but the VAT of the country where the EU branch of the company is based - most likely Luxembourg with its 15% VAT rate. (All Amazon deliveries to the Eurozone come from Amazon EU SARL in Luxembourg, for instance).

Which means the fair price would be EUR 640, almost 10% lower.

VAT is based on the buyer's country for digital goods/services [1], and in other cases (such as this) if the sales exceed 100 000 EUR per year. [2][3] In some countries, like Finland, the limit is even lower at 35 000 EUR per year. [4] So if Oculus expects to sell more than 50 copies of the Rift to Finland, it will have to pay the Finnish VAT.

Also, Luxembourg's VAT is 17% nowadays. [5]

[1] https://kdp.amazon.com/help?topicId=A30464Q6OVH578

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Union_value_added_tax...

[3] https://www.gov.uk/guidance/vat-what-to-do-if-youre-an-overs...

[4] http://ec.europa.eu/taxation_customs/resources/documents/tax...

[5] http://www.vatlive.com/european-news/luxembourg-vat-rise-17-...

Have to also account for labor costs being higher in Europe, I'd bet.

CA$849, which pretty much matches the exchange rate, plus $65 shipping and tax (~$120 for most of Canada).

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