Brazil's Expensive PS4 Price Tag Due to Import Taxes

[roseofbattle]

Brazil's Expensive PS4 Price Tag Due to Import Taxes

Sony clarifies the price rundown for the PS4 in Brazil and says it will speak with government agencies in the country.

Buying new consoles in Brazil costs much more than it would in Japan, North America, or Europe. Upon the news that the PS4 would cost the equivalent of about $1,800 in Brazil, Sony has jumped in to clarify the price of the console in the country. About 63 percent of the price tag is due to taxes and fees for importing the console.

Marc Stanley, the Sony general manager for Latin America, disclosed the costs of the console in Brazil on the PlayStation blog. Retailer markups accounted for 15.5% of the increased cost, and 21.5% was due to a "PS4 transfer price." Those together put the console's price in Brazil at $390. The majority of the hefty price is thanks to the many taxes in bringing the console over. Sony has to make sure it complies with all laws and import taxes in Brazil. Manufacturing the PS4 would bring down the price significantly. However, that may not be for a while. The PS3 also had a high price tag upon launch in Brazil, and it was not manufactured in Brazil until three years later.

"We have read thousands of your comments and heard your frustration loud and clear about the PS4 retail price of R$3,999 in Brazil," Stanley wrote on the blog, translated by a Sony representative to Joystiq. "We want to emphasize that it isn't in the interest of Sony Computer Entertainment America to sell PS4 units at this high retail price, as it's not good for our gamers, and it's not good for the PlayStation brand."

Source: Joystiq [http://blog.br.playstation.com/2013/10/21/gamers-brasileiros-nos-ouvimos-voces/]

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[Phrozenflame500]

Jesus Christ, how much of an import tax do you have? I can't imagine a 399$ machine going for anymore then maybe xBone price in Brazil, that's almost a 300% increase there.

 

[darthzew]

I lived in Brazil for fourteen years. The PS4 being four grand Brazilian just was not news to me. Video games have always been insanely expensive. I read in another article that Sony is actually losing money per PS4 sold in Brazil, so there's that too. But it's fucking ridiculous how much electronics cost down there, especially video games.

And then people wonder why there's such a flourishing piracy market in South American. Why would I spend $100 for a new game when I could spend less then a dollar for a pirated one? I don't advocate piracy, but it's easy to see why people do it.

 

[sid]

Jesus Christ, how much of an import tax do you have? I can't imagine a 399$ machine going for anymore then maybe xBone price in Brazil, that's almost a 300% increase there.

100% tax to get into the country, a few more taxes from god knows where, and retailers doubling the price because "why the fuck not" tends to net that price. Brazilians nowadays find it cheaper to fly up to America, buy two baggages worth of merchandise, and fly back. In fact, I'm not sure how the escapist treats talks about shady tax dodging policies, but i know more than a few people who turn a hell of a profit from flying to America and back with goods

 

[Quiotu]

Jesus Christ, how much of an import tax do you have? I can't imagine a 399$ machine going for anymore then maybe xBone price in Brazil, that's almost a 300% increase there.

100% tax to get into the country, a few more taxes from god knows where, and retailers doubling the price because "why the fuck not" tends to net that price. Brazilians nowadays find it cheaper to fly up to America, buy two baggages worth of merchandise, and fly back. In fact, I'm not sure how the escapist treats talks about shady tax dodging policies, but i know more than a few people who turn a hell of a profit from flying to America and back with goods

Truthfully, what I heard from locals is even easier than that. They import their electronics from Paraguay, which is basically tax free. So they don't even have to leave South America to get away from their tax-heavy corrupt system.

 

[Grabehn]

I kinda like the stand Sony took on this, which has been going on for a while now, I still wouldn't buy a PS-anything but I like their attitude, considering that when the PS3 launched over here, it costed $1400, and now they go for a base of %340, which while not the best, it's still a better deal than their awful exchange rate used before.

snip

Truthfully, what I heard from locals is even easier than that. They import their electronics from Paraguay, which is basically tax free. So they don't even have to leave South America to get away from their tax-heavy corrupt system.

Just wanted to point out that it is a specific city in Paraguay, and indeed, that's one of the better ways unless you want to go the piracy route. I bought the original DS there a couple of weeks after it came out, and it was $140 with a game, against the $260 launch price it had in my country, and they're just now being sold at about $100, while games on ir are still $60 in most stores.

 

[search_rip]

In México we also have issues with import taxes (with the convertion rate we will pay around 570 dollars for a PS4) but not as bad as Brazil O_O *WTF*

 

[if_then_else]

Yep, we have the same problem in Argentina. I've seen you can pre-order it for 1050 dollars, but not "officialy", there're some people that can import it without paying some of the customs taxes (illegaly basicaly, pretty common practice here).

I haven't even had the courage to check what the real price is, it's probably close to 1500 dollars. I won't be buying it anytime soon anyway.

 

[mateushac]

Well, you can always import one yourself. Import tax for this kind of product is around 60%, plus a few minor taxes, that should come to about 70% total. Considering retail value + shipping + taxes, people are predicting it will cost us about R$1,800.00 (about $850). Plenty of people have already gotten their preorders placed overseas.

 

[BitterLemon]

This PS4 story is a bit shady. Lots of people believe that they are using a high profit margin, probably because there's very few units available for here and are trying to use the taxes as an excuse. It's true that the import tax is high, but other imported eletronics never reach something like 4x times original the price. They showed some numbers when people started complaining, but it were strange numbers. Someone used the official brazilian tax calculator to check and the value was more than U$500 lower in comparison with Sony numbers. It's hard to know what is happening, but won't be the first time. When PS3 launched, there were places selling it for U$ 3500,00 for no reason at all, just because it was the NEW THING.

The idea of the taxes is attracting factories to be built here, generating jobs. There's huge taxes benefits for foreign products manufactured here. But there's another thing... middle class here have a habit of buying ridiculously expensive things just to show off. It's common to see people compromising 40% of their income to pay debts from luxury cars or gigantic TVs. Some businesses take advantage of that using gigantic profit margins. Apple does that... even though they have 5 factories here, they never dropped the price from the levels of when iPhones and iPads were imported. People buy it anyway.