Spidey's trip to France

[Mardeth]

Originally posted by: AndrewR
Bullsh!t. I used to pay $5+ for beer in France back in '92-93 (pints -- .5L was more). Depends on what you buy. If you stick to Stella, you'll probably get away with cheaper, but anything decent is going to run around there especially with the exchange rate as insane as it is right now.

Im glad that you know better than we do based on your visit 10 years ago.

Originally posted by: spidey07
In fact I was just reading an article in wall street about how euporeans are flocking to america for all the great deals. pair of jeans is 100 USD over there, 25 over here.

Its certainly cheaper there even more so because of the rates. But youd have buy quite a lot to get even.

 

[conjur]

Originally posted by: tss4

Originally posted by: sandorski

Originally posted by: Triumph
I guess the VAT makes things expensive for tourists but not the locals. If the VAT replaces the income tax, then you are basically paying part of some French guys income tax. That's not really very good for the tourist economy, is it?

As Conjur suggsted, these types of Taxes are usually redeemable for Tourists.

Really? So when I was in England I could have saved my receipts from dinner and gotten the VAT tax back? If so, how would I have done that?

VAT Refunds for Visitors to the UK

 

[Mardeth]

Originally posted by: conjur

Originally posted by: tss4

Originally posted by: sandorski

Originally posted by: Triumph
I guess the VAT makes things expensive for tourists but not the locals. If the VAT replaces the income tax, then you are basically paying part of some French guys income tax. That's not really very good for the tourist economy, is it?

As Conjur suggsted, these types of Taxes are usually redeemable for Tourists.

Really? So when I was in England I could have saved my receipts from dinner and gotten the VAT tax back? If so, how would I have done that?

VAT Refunds for Visitors to the UK

What stops you from picking up receipts out of trash cans and refund the VAT?

 

[freegeeks]

Originally posted by: spidey07

Originally posted by: Thump553
A lot of the high cost was because the dollar is depressed compared to the Euro. Coupled with the fact you were shopping/eating in tourist areas (high priced everywhere), and the effect of a high sales tax (VAT) because of no other major taxes explains the sticker shock you faced.

well I stayed in a very small country house - the tourist areas were unbelievable.

But true about the dollar slipping against the euro. If the exchange rate was 1 it would only be "moderately" expensive. With it running about 1.36 it was outrageous.

In fact I was just reading an article in wall street about how euporeans are flocking to america for all the great deals. pair of jeans is 100 USD over there, 25 over here.

a few weeks ago I was in NYC for the marathon
everywhere you went Europeans were buying everything they could their hands on

I came back with an Ipod, shoes, clothes, ....

 

[burnedout]

Originally posted by: AndrewR

Originally posted by: BarneyFife
Thats a poor example because you were hit up at tourist areas. Beer in France or anywhere in Europe does not cost $6.

Bullsh!t. I used to pay $5+ for beer in France back in '92-93 (pints -- .5L was more). Depends on what you buy. If you stick to Stella, you'll probably get away with cheaper, but anything decent is going to run around there especially with the exchange rate as insane as it is right now.

Back in '93, German beer went for anywhere between $1.50 to $5.00, depending of course on various factors such as exchange rate, location, event, etc.

Currently, you can still find .5L Pils beer in most German pubs for roughly $2-$4. Over the years, I've paid as little as ~35 cents and as much as $5 for a good glass of Bier. Germany is a wonderful country - a beer drinkers paradise, in fact - if one enjoys staying hosed on beautiful beer at a relatively low cost.

 

[imported_tss4]

Originally posted by: conjur

Originally posted by: tss4

Originally posted by: sandorski

Originally posted by: Triumph
I guess the VAT makes things expensive for tourists but not the locals. If the VAT replaces the income tax, then you are basically paying part of some French guys income tax. That's not really very good for the tourist economy, is it?

As Conjur suggsted, these types of Taxes are usually redeemable for Tourists.

Really? So when I was in England I could have saved my receipts from dinner and gotten the VAT tax back? If so, how would I have done that?

VAT Refunds for Visitors to the UK

Hmmm... so I would have had to get everystore that sold me something to give me a VAT refund document.

 

[Zebo]

We have much higher taxes than France does. SS alone if self employed is almost as much. Not counting property, sales, federal, state, excise, medicare, and use taxes. If you don't take advantage of the code and invest like the governemnt want you to, you can pay an easy 50%. Unfortunatly we don't get anything back for the money we pay, no social insurance, no poor medical, expensive education unlike the french get for thier monies.

BTW I've paid $6 a beer in Newport Beach lots of times. $150 bar tab, is nothing unusal (liquer licence in CA is 80-200K, another tax you don't see). You live where lots of people want to things get expensive to pay for property... Price some real estate in France sometime and you'll begin to understand.

 

[imported_tss4]

Originally posted by: Zebo

We have much higher taxes than France does. SS alone if self employed is almost as much. Not counting property, sales, federal, excise, medicare, and use taxes. If you don't take advantage of the code and invest like the governemnt want you to, you can pay an easy 50%. Unfortunatly we don't get anything back for the money we pay, no social insurance, no poor medical, expensive education unlike the french get for thier monies.

BTW I've paid $6 a beer in Newport Beach lots of times. $150 bar tab, is nothing unusal.

You're so full of crap. You look up any study of TOTAL average taxation rates for developed countries and you'd see us below average. You can believe we pay too much in taxes without spewing blatently false stuff like this. It underminds your credibility.

And we do have social security, medicare, medicaid, tuition assistance, etc. Sure, its not to the point that the french have, but they're also not defending half the world in their WW2 era aircraft carriers.

 

[Zebo]

You're so full of crap. You look up any study of TOTAL average taxation rates for developed countries and you'd see us below average. You can believe we pay too much in taxes without spewing blatently false stuff like this. It underminds your credibility.

And we do have social security, medicare, medicaid, tuition assistance, etc. Sure, its not to the point that the french have, but they're also not defending half the world in their WW2 era aircraft carriers.[/q
-----------------------
What's false? The only crap I see is you obviously don't have a clue as to taxes. Wait till you get a job you'll see.,

 

[crooked22]

And we do have social security, medicare, medicaid, tuition assistance, etc. Sure, its not to the point that the french have, but they're also not defending half the world in their WW2 era aircraft carriers

to receive any of those, for the exception of tuition, you need to be 62+ and/or messed up so bad the government has to review whether you really "need" it, even though you have been paying for it all your life. the french on the other hand, they can defend themselves rather adequately, they have their own advance weaponry, their children are not dying in a war, and even though they are not "defending half the world" they are involved in their own military endeavours. oh, and they have medical insurance to boot. so in a way, they get more out of it than us.

 

[Fern]

Originally posted by: bsobel

19.6 tax on everything.

Yea, but no income tax. I'd trade the 45% I'm paying now for 19.6 on absolutely everything in a heartbeat (short of moving to the EU 😉)

WTF??

As a CPA specializing in Int'l Tax and living/working in Paris for 5-6 yrs I can tell you that France DOES have a personal income tax.


As far as a VAT refund - you aint gettin no refund for items you consumed in the country.

 

[Fern]

Originally posted by: tss4

Originally posted by: sandorski

Originally posted by: Triumph
I guess the VAT makes things expensive for tourists but not the locals. If the VAT replaces the income tax, then you are basically paying part of some French guys income tax. That's not really very good for the tourist economy, is it?

As Conjur suggsted, these types of Taxes are usually redeemable for Tourists.

Really? So when I was in England I could have saved my receipts from dinner and gotten the VAT tax back? If so, how would I have done that?

No, no refund for dinners consumed in the UK