Moving above the 49th parallel causes magical price changes in Microsoft Office.
Canadians get a good deal for most Office 2013 purchases however once you add provincial taxes it might take away any price advantage.
The same prices apply to both the English and French versions of Office 2013 sold in Canada. The difference is the interface language used on the menus and ribbon. Both versions include the proofing tools (spelling, grammar, thesaurus etc) for both languages.
Calculation Details:
Price comparisons are especially tricky in Canada since there’s such a mix of sales tax options depending on the province. We’ve included the Canadian federal GST of 5% since that applies to all provinces/purchasers. Provincial taxes range from zero to an effective 10.5%.
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.
Canadian and US retail prices from Microsoft.
Interbank Exchange Rate at 19 Feb 2013: 1.00789 plus 2% to simulate higher credit card xrate charged to consumers
Canadian GST: 5% is NOT 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
- Language support in Microsoft Office
- Changing languages that come with Office
- Canadian prices for Office 2010
