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Adding unusable RAM for tax reasons
- JoeAltmaier 5y agoPistols manufactured in Mexico are imported as a kit of parts, then assembled as "Made in America!"
- imposterr 5y agoArchive link: https://archive.fo/Qlsx2 https://archive.fo/Qlsx2
- AviationAtom 5y agoThanks, kind neighbor. It appears to be hugged to death already.
- sodality2 5y agohttps://web.archive.org/web/20211204094705/https://www.cpcwiki.eu/index.php/472 https://web.archive.org/web/20211204094705/https://www.cpcwi...
- Isthatablackgsd 5y agoFunny enough, I learnt about this from Noel's Retro Lab YT channel last week [0]. When I saw the title, I figured it is about CPC 472 before loading the page. Yup it is. I recommend a video to watch, it is fascinating of why they did and Noel shows the breakdown of this unusable RAM in the video. [0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ErfWfjN9iU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ErfWfjN9iU
- geocrasher 5y agoThis reminds me of the Subaru BRAT in the early '80s. There was a 25% tarrif on imported pickups. So Subaru added two plastic jump seats in the back of the BRAT, even making them face backwards. No seat belts as I recall just handles. They weren't even really intended to be used. They were just cheap plastic. But they served the purpose of making the vehicle a four-seater car instead of a pickup, with only a 2.5% tarrif. Tarrif averted, thousands sold! https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subaru_BRAT https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subaru_BRAT
- hedgehog 5y agoThis kind of thing is apparently pretty common. The two that I know of are shoes -> slippers by adding fabric to the bottom and European manufactured vans being imported to the US as passenger vehicles and then converted to cargo after arrival.
- bko 5y agoThat's fascinating. I remember hearing there about a giant book on import taxes on apparel with various definitions. For instance, "sandals" may be taxed X but "open toed shoes" may be taxed Y. Apparently these rates drive fashion trends to an incredible degree where even small modifications to a product could totally change the economics.
- eli 5y agoThere's a famous example that Converse All Stars included a very thin fuzzy lining along the outside of the soles so that they could qualify under the "slipper" tax instead of the higher "sneaker" tax.
- matsur 5y agoSaid giant book: https://hts.usitc.gov/current https://hts.usitc.gov/current
- bko 5y agoThe legends are true. The differences could be huge > Footwear with open toes or open heels; footwear of the slip-on type, that is held to the foot without the use of laces or buckles or other fasteners, the foregoing except footwear of subheading 6402.99.33 and except footwear having a foxing or a foxing-like band wholly or almost wholly of rubber or plastics applied or molded at the sole and overlapping the upper: >> Having outer soles with textile materials having the greatest surface area in contact with the ground, but not taken into account under the terms of additional U.S. note 5 to this chapter 12.5% >> Other 37.5% > Sandals and similar footwear of plastics, produced in one piece by molding. 3%
- eb0la 5y agoTaxes are one of the most powerful incentives in the world. For instance, dumping positions at loss before new years eve might help you with your tax bill since you have losses. And of course, setting up a company in a country where you did buy a lot of spectrum and you have huge losses, effectively creating a tax credit ( https://www.reuters.com/article/telefonica-germany/update-2-telefonica-germany-to-benefit-from-tax-credits-idUSL5E8LHF0N20121017 https://www.reuters.com/article/telefonica-germany/update-2-... )
- 8ytecoder 5y agoImportant to note that you can’t buy back the same stock/instrument and claim capital loss in most countries
- fragmede 5y agoTis a very important note for as an amature tax-advantageous practice! You can buy something similar, though. eg trade AMD for Intel or some such. Where investors are concerned about markets rather than invidivuals stocks (AMD and INTC are both hardware tech stocks), the notion is that a rising tide lifts all boats, and that large, sector-related good news for Intel is good news for AMD. It's not strictly true, obviously, but it's close enough that the practice is worthwhile.
- djrogers 5y agoSelling stocks at a loss is only helpful in the short term, or if you don’t think those stocks are going back up. If you harvest a loss for a tax deduction on December 31, and the stock goes back up by the end of January so you’d be even, you are way behind – because the loss only comes back to you at your highest tax rate.
- brilee 5y agoFiguring out how to defer taxes is equivalent to receiving a free loan from the government, which can be used to profit on the float.
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- PaywallBuster 5y agohttps://archive.is/pjTzl https://archive.is/pjTzl
- SMAAART 5y agoTax is the reason why Converse sneakers have fuzzy bottoms https://www.businessinsider.com/heres-why-converse-sneakers-have-fuzzy-bottoms-2015-8 https://www.businessinsider.com/heres-why-converse-sneakers-...
- tasha0663 5y ago> Fortunately, the fuzzy bottom doesn't affect the performance of the shoe. That's false. They slide all over the place on tile and polished floors. They're terrible. I've abandoned them for Vans. Maybe they've improved in recent years but they lost me long time ago. I can hardly think of anything more ridiculously overpriced than some canvas, rubber, and eyelets for $60. Then they have the gall to add extra crap that wrecks the shoe to pinch a few more pennies.
- fennecfoxen 5y agoIt's more than a few pennies! They're pinching multiple dollars. Tariffs on shoes are a big deal like that.
- putlake 5y agoNPR's Marketplace had a fascinating story about something similar in the apparel business. They design pockets in various types of clothing to reduce tariffs. https://www.marketplace.org/2019/05/29/theres-a-reason-your-columbia-shirt-has-a-tiny-pocket-near-your-waistline/ https://www.marketplace.org/2019/05/29/theres-a-reason-your-... Example from the article: Certain women’s garments with “pockets below the waist” get lower duty rates than those without. Because of that, a number of the women’s shirts Columbia Sportswear makes are intentionally designed with tiny pockets near the waistline, which lowers the cost of importing them. One of the company’s shorthands for “pockets below the waist” is “nurse’s pocket.”
- FroshKiller 5y agoMarketplace is produced by American Public Media, not National Public Radio.
- cromka 5y ago> Without the stiff competition of the smaller, lighter, easier-to-drive, and more fuel efficient import pickups and vans, Detroit automakers were no longer required to keep pace with innovation of foreign brands. One has to wonder how much this innocent-looking levy contributed to the overall global warming situation, by never having the US automakers to be incentivized to manufacture more efficient commercial fleet, and, as such, inbreeding the culture of buying the overly big pick ups and SUVs with massive engines for private use, too.
- yeetaccount4 5y agoI’ve heard that pickups got so big in the past decade or so because of Obama-era emission regulation. A bigger truck was classified differently and not subject to such strict guidelines, so when the old 3/4 and 1-ton trucks couldn’t possibly meet the new rules they got bigger to get around them.
- illirik 5y agoTo this day, super-duty pickups do not have to report fuel economy figures. I technically own a 1984 Ford F350, with a 460 cubic-inch (7.5 L) V8, that is rotting in a family member's yard in North Carolina, which (when operative) got 8-9 miles per gallon. It's about the size and length of a brand-new Honda Odyssey; the real split is between vehicles classed as commercial, and those that were not. Even today, you can buy an F250 with no EPA ratings due to the GWVR
- yeetaccount4 5y agoFunny thing is a new superduty can match or exceed the highway mileage of a new 4Runner. As long as you aren’t cruising around town or catching red lights you’re not doing all that bad. ~20MPG in eco mode.
- sparkling 5y agoSomething similar: for the original Playstation 2 that was sold in the EU, Sony included a DVD with a BASIC interpreter to classify the console as a personal computer. This little hack avoided some EU import taxes back in the day. https://www.theregister.com/2000/11/07/sony_adds_basic_to_playstation/ https://www.theregister.com/2000/11/07/sony_adds_basic_to_pl...
- Gigachad 5y agoStill seems like a win as it made the console more useful.
- rasz 5y agoSame with 29.59 min video recording limit on tons of cameras. https://www.borrowlenses.com/blog/video-recording-limits-in-mirrorless-and-dslr-cameras/ https://www.borrowlenses.com/blog/video-recording-limits-in-... "In 2006, the European Union created a law that added an import duty of 5-12% to any video camera. What determined whether a camera was a video camera? In short, the ability to record longer than 30 minutes. Thus, companies like Canon and Nikon decided to cap their video clip lengths, preventing their enthusiast and prosumer cameras from being considered video cameras."
- pomian 5y agoI always wondered about that limit. There were many stories going around about hardware, memory limits, but this sounds much more believable.
- genezeta 5y ago> The CPC472 itself was sold for how many? pesetas (how many? euros) As far as I can remember, the CPC472 was sold for the same price as the CPC464. It was never marketed as an actual improvement over the 464 and competition in the market was hard enough to be able to justify a higher price without a clear justification. Then again my memory is not that good now so anyone feel free to correct me.
- xtracto 5y agoThis was a pretty interesting read. I had to stretch my Google-fu muscles, but I was able to find the original Spanish import tax law from 1985: https://www.boe.es/diario_boe/txt.php?id=BOE-A-1985-18847 https://www.boe.es/diario_boe/txt.php?id=BOE-A-1985-18847 (Google translation below) From here: https://www.zonadepruebas.com/viewtopic.php?t=1830 https://www.zonadepruebas.com/viewtopic.php?t=1830 It's funny that they explicitly set the number of RAM KB for machines. I wonder what was the logic? --- BY ROYAL DECREE 1215/1985, OF JULY 17, A MODIFICATION HAS BEEN INTRODUCED IN THE TARIFF DUTY ASSIGNED TO SUBHEADING 84.53.B.II OF THE CUSTOMS TARIFF, CONSISTING OF SETTING A SPECIFIC MINIMUM DUTY OF 15,000 PESETAS PER UNIT. THE BROAD CONTENT OF THE REFERENCE SUBHEADING, IN WHICH DIFFERENT ELECTRONIC COMPUTER PRODUCTS ARE CLASSIFIED AND TAKING INTO ACCOUNT THAT THE MENTIONED SPECIFIC MINIMUM SHOULD ONLY AFFECT A CERTAIN TYPE OF AUTOMATIC MACHINES FOR THE PROCESSING OF INFORMATION, KNOWN SECTORALLY UNDER THE THE NAME OF "MICROCOMPUTERS", MAKES IT ADVISABLE TO COMPLEMENT THE CITED MODIFICATION WITH THE TIMELY CLARIFICATION LIMITING ITS SCOPE. BY VIRTUE OF IT, AND IN USE OF THE POWER RECOGNIZED TO THE GOVERNMENT BY ARTICLE 6 SECTION 4 OF THE CURRENT TARIFF LAW, AT THE PROPOSAL OF THE MINISTER OF ECONOMY AND FINANCE, AND PRIOR APPROVAL BY THE COUNCIL OF MINISTERS OF AUGUST 28, 1985, I HAVE : ARTICLE 1. FOR THE PURPOSES OF THE APPLICATION OF THE SPECIFIC MINIMUM RIGHT OF 15,000 PESETAS PER UNIT INTRODUCED IN SUBHEADING 84.53.B.II OF THE CUSTOMS TARIFF BY ROYAL DECREE 1215/1985, OF JULY 17, IT SHALL BE UNDERSTOOD BY TAXABLE UNIT AFFECTED BY THE CITED RIGHT THOSE AUTOMATIC MACHINES FOR PROCESSING INFORMATION THAT CONSIST OF INTEGRATED OPERATIONAL UNITS, WHICH COMPRISE IN A SINGLE ENVELOPE AT LEAST ONE CENTRAL UNIT AND ONE INPUT UNIT, WHETHER OR NOT PROVIDED WITH AN OUTPUT UNIT, AND WHICH HAVE RAM MEMORY WITH CAPACITY NOT EXCEEDING 64 KB. ART. 2. WITHOUT PREJUDICE TO ITS EFFECTIVENESS FROM JULY 25, DATE OF PUBLICATION OF ROYAL DECREE 1215/1985, THIS ROYAL DECREE WILL ENTER INTO FORCE THE SAME DAY OF ITS PUBLICATION IN THE "OFFICIAL STATE GAZETTE". GIVEN IN PALMA DE MALLORCA ON AUGUST 28, 1985.-JUAN CARLOS R.-THE MINISTER OF ECONOMY AND TREASURY, CARLOS SOLCHAGA CATALAN.
- Johnie 5y agoThis is like how tax policies gave rise to White Claw https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2019/09/how-tax-policy-gave-us-white-claw.html https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2019/09/how-tax-policy-gave-...
- cybervegan 5y agoThat's so unethical - and Alan Sugar is held up as an example of a business genius?
- mattl 5y agoMore of a marketing genius.
- rietta 5y agoGlock ships their Glock 19 from Austria to Smyrna, Georgia, with adjustable target sights to have enough points under US import law and then an armorer changes those sights to their fixed self defense sights to be sold in the US market. Presumably the sights get shipped back to Austria for the next batch.
- kubatyszko 5y agoMy boss in the early 2000's told me a story where in the 70's, they would bring in computers from West Germany to Poland, and there were restrictions on how "powerful" they could be due to a ton of restrictions. So they would get a lot of spare parts with each computer, bought separately, to make them usable as intended.
- supernova87a 5y agoIt's called tariff engineering for a reason. Columbia will add an extra pocket below the waistline on a women's shirt so it gets classified as a utility/work garment and they can price it 10% cheaper. https://www.marketplace.org/2019/05/29/theres-a-reason-your-columbia-shirt-has-a-tiny-pocket-near-your-waistline/ https://www.marketplace.org/2019/05/29/theres-a-reason-your-... Converse will line the rim/bottom of a shoe with felt so it can be classified as a slipper. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/this-is-why-your-converse-sneakers-have-felt-on-the-bottom-6016648/ https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/this-is-why-your-c... Canon will choose to make an insufficiently sized heatsink on its DSLR so that in video mode it has to shut down after 20 minutes so it can be classified as a camera and not a video recorder. https://www.cined.com/canon-eos-r5-heatsink-mod-improves-recording-time-in-8k/ https://www.cined.com/canon-eos-r5-heatsink-mod-improves-rec...
- alibarber 5y agoI have experienced the Canon DSLR software limit to 30 minutes of recording - much to my frustration.
- Rarok 5y agoProbably you know that but check magic lantern firmware (if its available for your camera)
- sudosysgen 5y ago>Canon will choose to make an insufficiently sized heatsink on its DSLR so that in video mode it has to shut down after 20 minutes so it can be classified as a camera and not a video recorder. The camera will record indefinitely in 4K line-skipping mode, so that's not actually the reason they didn't put the heatsink on. That reason is either incompetence or market segmentation.
- raverbashing 5y ago> That reason is either incompetence or market segmentation. Yes Or simply because most people don't record longer videos. Or because that heat has to go somewhere and a bigger heatsink might heat some areas (or the user). Or the current heatsink is an existing part and it was "good enough"
- techie128 5y agoIt is unfortunate to read about such decisions. I can't imagine the amount of waste, carbon footprint and other environmental impact due to such decisions. This is purely policy failure. I am curious - did they advertise these machines with the extra bit of RAM? That would surely be false advertising as the additional 8KB was unusable...
- Kenneth21 5y ago[dead]
- Rarok 5y agoI'm Spanish and I'm finding this very hilarious because that explains a "urban legend" that was about that computer. People said that the Amstrad had a secret chip that only the NSA could use. Yes secret chips for a foreign government in a offline computer.
- evancoop 5y agoIn everything from federal law down to an organization's handbook, a simple principle applies: If a nonsensical action helps one remain in compliance with the rule, it is the rule (not the action) that is nonsensical. Amazing how many examples exist.
- broknbottle 5y agoIt's my understanding that is reason for the PS3 having Linux / other OS support at launch. It was classified as a "computer" vs gaming device and this resulted in a lower import tax for certain countries.