iPhone apps price HIKE! Pay more if you belong from these places – HT Tech
Apple is increasing prices for apps hosted on its app stores in several countries after adjusting for new taxes.
If you buy new apps from the Apple App Store, this sad news is for you. Apple has adjusted prices of apps on its App Store in certain countries. Some countries will see price hikes for the apps listed on App Store whereas other countries will witness app prices dropping down. iPhone and iPad users in Bahrain, Ukraine and Zimbabwe, where the VAT charges have increases substantially.
In Bahrain, the VAT charges have increased from 5 percent to 10 percent. Ukraine will witness increased VAT charges at 20 percent and those in Zimbabwe have to 5 percent extra VAT charge. These prices will have to be borne by customers entirely in these countries.
Apple App Store price changes in several countries
However, not all markets will witness price hikes. Apple will adjust tax charges in The Bahamas as it goes down to 10 percent from the previous 12 percent. The same goes for users in Tajikistan where the VAT charges have been dropped from 18 percent to 15 percent. However, the prices won’t go down for the end user and Apple will adjust its commission here.
Similarly, users in Oman will not see any changes despite the VAT of 5 percent. In some countries, the changes will be reflected in the billing but won’t affect the final pricing. For example, in Austria, the Value-added tax rate will be reversed to 10 percent after temporary decrease to 5 percent for qualifying e-books and audiobooks.
In Latvia, VAT rate decreases from 21 percent to 5 percent for qualifying e-books and e-publications. In Romania, VAT rate decreases from 19 percent to 5 percent for qualifying e-books, audiobooks, and e-publications.
There will be no changes to app prices for Indian users, considering that there are no changes implemented here. Note that Apple takes a cut of 30 percent from developer revenue for all apps and services sold across the world.