British customers can pay up to 45% more for Microsoft Office than across the pond.
Continuing our look at Office 2013 prices across the world, we turn to the United Kingdom where Microsoft continues their practice of charging non-US more for the same product as sold in the USA.
‘Every little helps’ as they say at Tesco’s – but in this case it’s helping the Microsoft bottom line not yours.
The worst offender is, surprisingly, Office 2013 Home and Business which is between 48% and 60% more expensive in the UK than in the USA. That’s surprising because the Professional edition is usually the most overpriced bundle.
With Office 2010, Microsoft UK’s prices weren’t too bad – the worst being Office 2010 Professional at just 9% more than in the US while Home & Student 2010 was actually lower than the US price. For Office 2007, UK customers could expect to pay between 27% and 50% more for the same product than those ‘across the pond’.
For Office 2013, the high prices for UK customers have returned with even the cheapest Office 2013 available to the public costing between 19% to 28% more.
Calculation Details:
The calculation is designed to allow for exchange rate variations, taxes and US state sales taxes. It’s as fair as we can make it, if anything, the calculation is generous to Microsoft.
UK and US retail prices from Microsoft.
Interbank Exchange Rate at 19 Feb 2013: 0.62658 plus 2% to simulate higher credit card xrate charged to consumers
UK Valued Added Tax (VAT): 20% included in the advertised price.
The calculations apply the range of US state sales taxes, which Microsoft collects even for online / download orders. These taxes vary from zero (AL, OR, MO, NH and DE) to 7.5% in California.
The calculations does NOT allow US local sales taxes which are not charged by online retailers and therefore easily avoided for software products, especially downloads.
See Also
- Another look at Aussie Office 2013 pricing
- Office 2013 – watching the sales pitch
- Office 2013 prices double and beyond
- Office 2010 price increases in Australia
- Office 2010 in the UK at more reasonable prices
- Office 2007 in the UK is pricey
