Asset store price increase on login. 'Straya Tax?

G'day, Hope I am posting this in the right place, apologies if it is not.

I have noticed that assets on the store are a certain price, then when I log in the price jumps up by a few bucks.

Some examples are:

TerrainComposer2, advertised as $22.50, even says its $22.50 in the description.
When I log in, it changes to $24.75

EasyRoads3D Pro is $45.00
When I log in? $49.50

Kind of starts making development expensive especially once you start looking at assets that break the $100 mark.
For example World Creator Professional goes from $189.00 to $207.90, increasing the price by $18.90, which translates to about $25 in my local currency if AUD's
Buy 4 such assets and that's $100aud just gone that could of been spent elsewhere.

Obviously everything on the asset store is getting marked up.

Might not be a lot to some, but it is for others and it all ends up adding up. The more an asset costs, the more the mark up.
That extra $25aud can be the difference between being able to purchase a much needed asset or not.

So why does this happen? Is it just the 'Straya Tax' as we call it here at work that many companies seem to just tack on to purchases made by Australians because illogical reasons.
e.g the Myth that all Australians are rich? That digital content has transportation costs due to Australia's location.... (lol yes, people do say that as if online content has the same expenses as a physical product.) Not to mention a million other stupid and mind numbing reasons. (Low population = pay more anyone?)

Or is this an actual fee tacked on because it is legally required by the Australian Government and that Unity or the Asset creators are paying taxes/fees to my government?

Can someone please explain this to me. Thanks.

 

It's the 10% Australian Goods and Services Tax.. For us UK users the price goes up by 20% for our VAT..

 

Thanks for replying. I thought it might be, but from experience it's not always the case. So hopefully people can understand any Aussies wariness as we've been price gouged so much when it comes to online purchases of software since forever.

Googled the hell out of it in relation to Unity and had not been able to find a single thing about it.

 

I think it’s weird that they add any sort of taxes. UT offices are mainly within the EU and USA, and even European countries outside the EU shouldn’t be paying VAT. The Australian government wouldn’t even be able to do anything about it if UT have no sales presence in the country.

Come Brexit, that slow-rolling disaster, people in the UK would still be paying VAT because there are UT offices in the UK, while if Luxembourg left people from there would no longer pay even the minimal VAT they normally have.

 

https://www.choice.com.au/shopping/online-shopping/buying-online/articles/gst-overseas-website-block

 

Eww. Hope it at least funds the ACCC!

 

For me the price doesn't change on login, but it suddenly jumps up when I go to the checkout because it adds "VAT". We do not have VAT in Australia, so that's as confusing as all heck.

Also, locally it's required that advertised prices already include the GST component, so that's really how it should be displayed.

But also, I'm pretty sure I've made purchases since July last year and not had this appear. So is that actually what's happening, or have Unity screwed up and charged me someone else's tax?

Edit: Actually, the price does change at login, I somehow missed that. Then a VAT is also listed... so I'm pretty sure something is messed up.

Edit again: Ok, right. Old asset store includes the GST and then tells you the GST component of the price next to the total, with a note to that effect on the store page. The new Asset Store does not list the GST in prices or in your cart, it just suddenly appears when you go to the checkout.

 

Also, just to resurrect this thread, it strikes me odd that they charge 10% GST and then apply currency conversion on that 10%, that doesn't seem right

 

What do you mean? It works out the same way whether you convert before or after adding the 10% GST.