Tool price disparity

[JonRich]

I've been looking at obtaining a CNC Mill, and as a result comparing tools and prices from various vendors.

One thing that has come to light is the disparity of tool price in relation to the rest of the world. As English is my home language comparison is being made between England, America and Australia my home location.

As an example the CNC mill is:

UK 3,500 GBP, ( 6300 AUD)
US 5,000 USD, ( 5700 AUD)
Canada 5,700 CAD (6100 AUD)

and again in Australia 10,100 AUD

Thoughts and comments please

[RICHARD ZASTROW]

Shipping charges? Import duty tax? VAT?

Where is the machine manufactured?

Dick Z

[Geof]

Dick Z has the answer I think and the impact of all three is compounded if the calculation is done the way it is in Canada.

Machine cost plus shipping charges are used to calculate duty payable.

Machine cost plus shipping charge plus duty are used to calculate VAT.

It is very easy to pay double the machine cost this way.

[JonRich]

The Machine is made in China - as most things seem to be these days,

The UK is quite hard on inports and the VAT would normally be 17% on top of the Import Duty, currently at 15% (as it used to be 10 years ago) due to the global melt down

In OZ its 5% duty and 10% GST

That does not seem too extreem,

All the other locations are within a margin of error.

Thanks for the comments

[MikeyL]

In Australia this sort of thing seems to go on a lot, I know of milling machines which sell in South Africa at almost half of what they sell for in Australia.