If you continue reading the sentence, it gets even more bizarre:
> it's around €650, including VAT.
Whatever taxes and discounts apply to the commenter’s own idiosyncratic situation have nothing to do with the price of the product.
A couple of years ago, I might have cared what the price of an M2 with Pasadena sales taxes was since I lived there at the time, but I sure wouldn’t have included them when talking about Apple prices here.
Similarly, VAT costs are between you and whatever jurisdiction you live in that’s levying them. Apple isn’t the one to thank or complain to about them.
I am outside of North America and have been for about 3/4 of my adult life.
The issue with adding VAT to prices on a forum with people living in a lot of different places is that VAT rates vary greatly from place to place.
To get an idea what an Apple product costs, it's more helpful to look at the price charged prior to taxes, tax deductions, educational discounts and other factors that will depend entirely on the specific cases of each reader.
You're saying this to someone who twice took a 24-hour train from Beijing to Hong Kong to buy an Apple computer for 27% less due to HK not having an additional electronics tax.
A lot of my friends in Taiwan used to buy macs in HK for the same reason.
This is most likely because OP used Euros. In Europe, prices are listed including VAT. So in day to day life, you only see prices with VAT for your country included.
> it's around €650, including VAT.
Whatever taxes and discounts apply to the commenter’s own idiosyncratic situation have nothing to do with the price of the product.
A couple of years ago, I might have cared what the price of an M2 with Pasadena sales taxes was since I lived there at the time, but I sure wouldn’t have included them when talking about Apple prices here.
Similarly, VAT costs are between you and whatever jurisdiction you live in that’s levying them. Apple isn’t the one to thank or complain to about them.