3 ms·
I’m surprised nobody mentioned possible solution in this conflict from legislative perspective - forcing Apple and other payment processors to show cost breakdo
by matesz 4y ago
I’m surprised nobody mentioned possible solution in this conflict from legislative perspective - forcing Apple and other payment processors to show cost breakdown to the user.
It should be in Apple Pay payment view overlay. Laud and clear. Very simple, it’s really not that hard to show the numbers.
I’m not saying going as far as to show to which budget money goest to from 30% tax, that will be the case in 50 years anyway, but as a consumer I’m really not interested in that information. I mean just a simple breakdown, like on receipts about tax amount payed to government on each purchase. Not just Apple of course - but all companies playing this game - stripe, PayPal, visa, Mastercard etc.
That’s because they act as a direct intermediary in such a fundamental branch of our economy, therefore society in general - money transfers.
Banks have to show the fees, why not payment processors? Again it’s obvious and simple to implement [1].
I assure you a lot of eyebrows will raise when seeing 30% on a receipt - it will force Apple to add an explanation. And a lot more people will start paying in cash again.
Now we need signatures and start lobbing governments. Maybe Europe is a better start because it seems government is more happy with adding regulations.
[1] https://nwlc.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/Brandys-walmart-receipt-8.webp https://nwlc.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/Brandys-walmart-...
- bzzzt 4y agoApple Pay charges approximately 0,15%, not 30%.
- matesz 4y agoNo no no, people are bamboozled into believing they can't get basic transparency, because <fill in some absurd excuse>. Apple Pay charges 0.15%. App Store charges 30%. I want to see both on the receipt. This is not rocket science. I can see how much government charges right? The point is to show me all intermediaries which are getting a cut directly from the purchase. App Store clearly is an intermediary. Tim Sweeney mentioned it as well - app developers cannot show cost breakdown in their own apps, it's an App Store rule [1]. I don't mean here to give users second option to pay without tax of course. Just showing information, so users understand pricing rules. We could push it a step further - show me all intermediaries taking a cut from any purchase and oh boy, this will be fun :) [1] https://twitter.com/TimSweeneyEpic/status/1553419096489877505?s=20&t=TKu00lrg5e8-63p33WxdQQ https://twitter.com/TimSweeneyEpic/status/155341909648987750...
- alexvoda 4y agoThat kind of rule you linked should be made illegal.
- _scr00bius_ 4y agoMost payment processors do not calculate taxes on purchases, especially not online. The merchant of record does of course, and in this case apple would be both the merchant of record and processor so it's moot. But if you wanted to make this law, aiming at the processors wouldn't get you very far
- matesz 4y agoYeah I can see how this will quickly devolve into some kind of epic legal battle and I am not a lawyer. However that is not the point. As a consumer, wouldn't you like to see cost breakdown like this? App purchase: $10.00 Direct intermediary total: 30% Payment processor total: 0.15% Government total: 8.25% PS. Software Engine total: 5% PS. Patent uses total: 5.63% [1] [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32374976 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32374976 - so finally we can put patent trolling issue to rest, that is to make it impossible for patent owners to prohibit it's uses and instead use appraisers to define value of a patent in it's particular use. This may mean forcing users to pay for a patent use, even in products which were initially free.