Too expensive to manufacture electronics in UK (RaspberryPi)

[yasockie]

RaspberyPI.com: We’ve started manufacture:

I’d like to draw attention to one cost in particular that really created problems for us in Britain. Simply put, if we build the Raspberry Pi in Britain, we have to pay a lot more tax. If a British company imports components, it has to pay tax on those (and most components are not made in the UK). If, however, a completed device is made abroad and imported into the UK – with all of those components soldered onto it – it does not attract any import duty at all. This means that it’s really, really tax inefficient for an electronics company to do its manufacturing in Britain, and it’s one of the reasons that so much of our manufacturing goes overseas. Right now, the way things stand means that a company doing its manufacturing abroad, depriving the UK economy, gets a tax break. It’s an absolutely mad way for the Inland Revenue to be running things, and it’s an issue we’ve taken up with the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills.

Spit your rage and flames

[Ignis Fatuus]

RaspberyPI.com: We’ve started manufacture:



Spit your rage and flames

The purpose of import duties is not to penalise importers per se, but to encourage local manufacture by penalising the foreign manufacturers of the imports.

The answer is for someone in the UK to manufacture the components locally, having an advantage because imported components are liable to duty and theirs are not.

[Sysman]

The purpose of import duties is not to penalise importers per se, but to encourage local manufacture by penalising the foreign manufacturers of the imports.

The answer is for someone in the UK to manufacture the components locally, having an advantage because imported components are liable to duty and theirs are not.

We looked at this in the early nineties, and it was crazy because there is stuff you simply cannot make from scratch in the UK, has patents on it etc etc.

[eek]

We looked at this in the early nineties, and it was crazy because there is stuff you simply cannot make from scratch in the UK, has patents on it etc etc.

WSS. Given the cost required to build the factories required to manufacture this stuff we really need to change the rules.

Unfortunately the rules will be EU based rather than UK based but considering that its a proxy for Broadcom complaining someone may actually do something about it.

[DodgyAgent]

The purpose of import duties is not to penalise importers per se, but to encourage local manufacture by penalising the foreign manufacturers of the imports.

The answer is for someone in the UK to manufacture the components locally, having an advantage because imported components are liable to duty and theirs are not.

Why would they when they can be manufactured abroad so much more cheaply?

[The Spartan]

The majority of the goods we buy these days are manufactured abroad

[DimPrawn]

Why would they when they can be manufactured abroad so much more cheaply?

British jobs for British workers.

Didn't you listen to anything Brown has said?

[DodgyAgent]

British jobs for British workers.

Didn't you listen to anything Brown has said?

We agents are better at talking than listening

[The Spartan]

We need to be more competitive or offer better incentives for those bringing jobs to Britain

[Arturo Bassick]

Maybe they should charge "import duty" on non EU workers, after all they are component parts or imported assets.