Hacker News Reader

The UK price includes VAT, the US price doesn’t include sales tax.

When you add sales tax (which is paid most of the time) the difference narrows.

Although to be fair most American states have way less sales tax than the UK VAT, which is 20%.

California - 7.5%, Florida - 6%, New York State - 4%.

I was told there was also an EU electronics recycling levy, although I'm not sure how much that adds.

Your California value excludes local sales tax, in SF it's 8.5%, though restaurants usually add another "Healthy SF" charge to cover the various mandates around providing health insurance to workers, often bringing it over 10%.

Sticker prices are only loosely related to the out the door price in the US.

Not all states have sales tax, of course, just most.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com