# USA version S/W ok in the UK?



## atmospheric (Apr 4, 2007)

OK guys, I'm taking a trip to Vegas in August (and coming back *RICH*  ).

I figure I might as well spend some of the Yankee Dollars I win on Office 2007, 'cos it's half the price over there. Am I likely to be faced with any compatibility issues, like £ or Euro's for example?

And what about Vista?


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## Richard Schollar (Apr 5, 2007)

I would think they will work exactly the same - no doubt within Vista there will be a Regional Settings feature similar to the one in XP.  Of course, I'm sure you'll be declaring your purchases to customs on your return so that you can pay the required duty and VAT?


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## litrelord (Apr 5, 2007)

That's made me think now (quite an achievement for this time of the morning).

How does the tax thing work with digital products?

I mean, if I purchase and download from a US site should I, technically speaking, then go and pay UK tax on that? Or would that only apply if I had a physical product shipped or carried it through customs myself?

And if it doesn't apply if there's no physical product would you then be able to purchase just a license key, assuming you could get a copy of the disc from somewhere else, and have that emailed to you and legally use that copy?

Maybe I should just go and read the terms and conditions that I freely tick box to accept without ever paying a blind bit of attention to.

Nick


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## Richard Schollar (Apr 5, 2007)

Nick

It applies to downloads as much as physical products, at least as far as I am aware.  The chances of you ever being caught out should you not voluntarily pay the taxes on a download? Currently zero, or as close to it as you can get...


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## Jon von der Heyden (Apr 5, 2007)

Bah, they tax us enough as it is!


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## atmospheric (Apr 6, 2007)

> Bah, they tax us enough as it is!



Income Tax 22% (40% if you're "lucky")
National Insurance 12%
VAT on just about everything 17.5%
Additional Tax on Tobacco, Car Fuel and Alcohol
Road Tax
Council Tax
Insurance, Gas, Electricity, Coal, Airport, TV Taxes
Stamp Duty
(I'm sure there's a lot I've missed)
You save frantically for your pension, so they Tax that.

So, you manage to save £1000. You pay a workman. Then they take it off him as well. Every £ issued by the Bank of England eventually filters back to the Taxman.

*Then* you've the audacity to die! Inheritance Tax!

Yes Richard, I'll be going through the Red Gate at Customs when I get back.  

Sorry, rant over!


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## Scott Huish (Apr 13, 2007)

What in the world is a TV tax? They tax you to watch television?



> Then you've the audacity to die! Inheritance Tax!



There's money left over after that?


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## Richard Schollar (Apr 13, 2007)

> What in the world is a TV tax? They tax you to watch television?



Scott, yup: in the UK, each household must buy a television licence (a year's licence costs about £130 or US$200) which funds the BBC.  The only TVs that don't require a licence are those with their own internal power supplies (ie batteries) - at least I think that's what the definition is.


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## Scott Huish (Apr 13, 2007)

> (a year's licence costs about £130 or US$200) which funds the BBC.



Isn't that what commercials are for, or do you not have any (in that case that might be a decent trade off), how many channels do you get for your $200?


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## barry houdini (Apr 13, 2007)

No, there are no commercials on the BBC, (although we get other channels which do have ads) and for your £135 the BBC gives you 8 channels, some of which you can't receive without satellite or digital

...still if you only have a black and white TV (is there anyone left?) you only pay £45.50


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## Jon von der Heyden (Apr 14, 2007)

and a £1000 fine if you fail to pay your TV license!  Grrr!!!

now, vehicle tax...  does anybody know if i will still have to pay typical 4x4 rate if my car has a LPG conversion...??


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## Scott Huish (Apr 14, 2007)

How do they know if you have a TV anyway? Do they make you register when you buy it?


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## Norie (Apr 14, 2007)

HOTPEPPER

They have detector vans that must use some sort of radio/radar/space technology to find the televisions.

Either that or they sneak into your house at night and/or look through the windows.

PS They sometimes 'target' the use of these vans when major sporting events are on.


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## DominicB (Apr 14, 2007)

> How do they know if you have a TV anyway? Do they make you register when you buy it?



Yes they do.  Same goes if you buy a VCR or DVD recorder - the theory being that it is the receiver that allows you to receive programs, not necessarily the screen to watch them on.

And it's more of a (forced) subscription than a tax.

DominicB


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## Richard Schollar (Apr 14, 2007)

> And it's more of a (forced) subscription than a tax.
> 
> DominicB



What's the difference?


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## Smitty (Apr 14, 2007)

> What's the difference?



Quit yer bitchin'!

Here I pay $49/month for 900 channels of $@&% with a satellite dish bolted to the roof just so my wife can watch the BBC!

Believe me, whatever you get in the UK *HAS* to be better than the crap served here!  Or do you have to listen to people talk about Sanjina and American Whatever too?  (Although we do get the History channel...)

Note that where I'm from, some guy driving by the house pointing something out of the window at it is due to get shot. 

Smitty

Hmmm...Hugh Laurie on "House" is **** good...Whatever happened to Cadfile - the Medieval Dirty Harry?  Have Tom & Diana met God yet?  Are the young ones old now?  And the Saint is on NCIS...


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## Norie (Apr 15, 2007)

Ah, Cadfael, now there was a program.

A monk who had fought in the Crusades, had a son and was from Wales.

PS David McCallum was The Man from UNCLE not The Saint, as far as I know anyway.

And he wasn't in The Girl from UNCLE but was in the A-Team.

Amazing the wealth of valuable information you can find on the web when bored on a Sunday afternoon.


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## Smitty (Apr 15, 2007)

> PS David McCallum was The Man from UNCLE not The Saint



Gotcha...It's been so long since I've seen either...

Smitty


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## litrelord (Apr 16, 2007)

$49 for satellite TV is OK. More like £49 for us although it depends how many channels you want of course.

The only other options are cable which is just as expensive or freeview which is (stating the obvious here going by the name) free but doesn’t have many channels. TBH I don’t watch all that much TV so I don’t bother with cable or sat but the TV license is a rip off for the few channels you get without ads. It does pay for the BBC radio stations as well though and I do like my Radio 2 on the journey home sometimes so I guess that’s worth paying for. Again – no radio adverts on those stations either.


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## steve case (Apr 21, 2007)

> Income Tax 22% (40% if you're "lucky")
> National Insurance 12%
> VAT on just about everything 17.5%
> Additional Tax on Tobacco, Car Fuel and Alcohol
> ...



STAMP DUTY?







You guys need to put a stop to that sort of thing.


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## Lewiy (Apr 22, 2007)

stamp duty is not a tax on stamps! It's a tax you pay on things like the purchase of a house over a certain value. Something to do with large value contracts.  Council tax has to be the worst of these. I pay £216 per month for nothing. The council are supposed to use my money to collect my waste, I live in a block of over 100 apartments, we all put our trash in one place for them. They are supposed to keep up the condition of the road outside my building. Again, 100+ flats share about 40 feet of road (and we all pay for it). They are supposed to provide police, i never see police around and my building has a 24hr security guy. I feel ripped off big time.


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## Smitty (Apr 22, 2007)

$400+ a month?

Hmmmm...Might have to have a Thames Tea Party soon.

Smitty


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## Norie (Apr 22, 2007)

Smitty

432.4536 US by the current exchange rate.

I've actually just had folks over from New Mexico and the say it might be the last time they come.

Partly because they're elderly but also because of the cost due to the exchange rate.

PS They brought cigarettes over that were a ¼ the price of what we pay here.


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## Marbles (Apr 22, 2007)

It's pointless now (The Licence Fee), because the BBC seem to think it's their job to compete with other channels, by copying the worst programmes on SKY and ITV, then filling in the gaps with soaps.

But there was a time when the BBC produced programs like "I Claudius" and, every Wednesday, "Play For Today".  People watched quality television because it was available.  Now they're too frightened to put anything on that might bother anyone enough to spill their tea.


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## Lewiy (Apr 23, 2007)

BBC _does_ have its perks.  Probably about 95% of the TV I watch is on BBC channels, if only for the lack of commercials!  I still think it's the best broadcasting company in the world (although they could do with spending a bit more of my licence fee on live Soccer games).

I splashed out £26 ($50) last year on a cheap as sh%t Freeview box and discovered that I only really use it to get BBC 3 and News 24.  Oh well, at least I'm ready for the 2011 analogue switch off!


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## Richard Schollar (Apr 23, 2007)

I must admit I spend most of my TV time watching Beeb channels (and also listen to Radio 4 more than any other radio station).  The quality on the BBC I find to be far in excess of what is available on the other free-to-air channels (like ITV1 for example, which really does seem to be 100% Trailer-trash offerings these days).  I do like ITV3 though for some of the quality repeats.


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## Lewiy (Apr 23, 2007)

I do agree that a couple of the "extra" terrestrial (no pun intended)channels like ITV3 & More4 have some good stuff on them, as long as they stay away from politics/current affairs, reality tv and premium rate phone in shows (which they seem to be having real problems with lately!)


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## justme (Apr 23, 2007)

Is Dr. Who still going?  Used to watch it years ago.  Haven't had TV for nine years now.  Don't know what's on these days.


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## Lewiy (Apr 23, 2007)

Dr Who has made a return after many years away and is now in it's 3rd "new" series.  We're already on our 2nd "new" Doctor and our 2nd "new" assistant, but still remains to be very entertaining (about the only thing on tv on a Saturday!)

There was also a spin off series called Torchwood (an anagram of Doctor Who) but I didn't watch that.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/doctorwho/


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## litrelord (Apr 25, 2007)

The new Dr Who series have been pretty good I think. I have no choice as my son is obsessed by it (probably too young at 4 to be watching these things but hey ho). The series Planet Earth was absolutely stunning to watch.


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## justme (Apr 25, 2007)

Went to the website.  Looks like I lost track of the series with the 5th doctor.  Would be fun to see how the series has changed over the years.  It's not enough to make me want to install a tv again though.  I don't think there's much worth watching anymore.  Can't say the programming is good for anyone no matter what your age.

Does anyone remember The Shadow?   Found a great place to listen to the old stories if you're interested.  They have lots of old time radio shows available.


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