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iMac 27" now or wait for refresh?
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There is, but it matters where the transaction takes place. When it takes place in Oregon, there is no sales tax.
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The strategy I'm using is to pick up in a state with no sales tax. I think OH and WV have one.
It is probably a good thing to mention to people that follow this strategy may be subject to a use tax.
These things very from state to state, but basically means if you purchase an item from a state with less sales tax than the state that the item will be used, then the difference between sales taxes is owed to the state that the item is used it.
Most people don't know about use tax, and many people that do know, don't pay it voluntarily, but it still exists, and there are penalties if caught.
You're right, and SC has one, and I do pay it on my Amazon purchases, and make a reasonable effort to do that on iTunes Store purchases. I'm the "head of the Apple family" so I pay for everything that the "family" buys, including those in Oregon and California.
I'll read up on taking delivery of an item in another state, and what the restrictions are on "importing" it into another state.
This brings up all kinds of questions, like, if I buy it in Washington and import it to Oregon, do I get my sales tax back (no. The Washington Constitution was modified in 2016 to not do that anymore)? Or, if I buy something in a State with 5% sales tax, and SC has an 8% tax, am I only liable for the 3% difference?
I don't think any of that applies. You pay the tax in the state in which it is bought.
I live near two state lines. It is not uncommon for many people here to purchase items in a different state and bring it to their home state, such as cars, boats, or even RVs.
Ohio has a sales tax.
Apple will likely hold its keynote at 10am PST (6pm BST) on 4 June. It should be available to watch online through the dedicated Apple site or the WWDC app on iPhone, iPad, or Apple TV. It'll be a two-hour event.
Quite true, but pragmatically speaking, unless you're a taxpayer who is likely to be audited, or a business, the chances of being caught are slim. Use taxes are as widely ignored as speed limits, and the sheer number of scofflaws make them almost impossible to enforce.
That's why legislators, backed by B&M retailers, have worked for years to force businesses, like Amazon, to collect those taxes at the time of purchase, in states in which they have a nexus. Even that long standing requirement is under attack, so a Mac purchase from B&H or Adorama could be subject to taxes in the future for those outside of NY. Arguments to overturn Quill Corp. v. North Dakota was heard last month by the Supreme Court.
Very true, someone is probably much more likely to get caught speeding than get caught not paying their use tax. Also, not too many people actually pays their use tax. Other than some CPAs I know, I bet not one other friend of mine pays it.
I live less than 30 minutes away from the Delaware(no sales tax) from Maryland(6% sales tax), and I know many people that drive right over the Delaware line to a large mall, which includes an Apple store, to do their large purchases.
But still, I think it is important to mention to other people reading the thread when a post is making recommendations or giving advice on how to avoid paying taxes.
If they know about the use tax, and still try to avoid paying it, then is on them if they get caught.
For automobiles, in Washington State, if you buy a car in Oregon, you'll pay the sales tax when you register it in WA. In fact (never have done it), the Oregon dealership will charge you the WA sales tax when you buy it, if you have a WA address. There's a weird thing, but if you buy an airplane kit from Van's in Aurora, Oregon, and they ship it to Washington, they charge the WA sales tax, but if you pick it up, then they don't pay it, and I guess it's on you to pay the use tax.
It has something to do with the delivery being considered doing business in the state I think. It's weird.
I think there was a mattress chain that went under a few years ago because the weren't collecting taxes for several years and got caught.
Mattress World sunk by Washington tax penalties - Portland Business ...
Anything that is registered by a particular state is easy to collect taxes on, i.e. Airplanes, Boats, Cars, Real Estate, vs a general internet purchase.
There are a lot of little odd laws as well. One I can think of is a requirement to register in Washington state (and pay a fee) if you are a pilot.to fly in the state. It's pretty much ignored.
EDIT: I guess the fee was removed in 2005, I haven't lived up in the state for quite a while.
https://www.wsdot.wa.gov/aviation/Registration/PilotMechRegisNotReq.htm
Also, Washington state conducts "stings" at schools to look for people who have cars registered in Oregon, but have children attending Washington schools.
http://www.kptv.com/story/37595711/...n-vancouver-without-washington-license-plates
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Very interesting. I feel bad for the Mattress business. I guess they could have just added the sales tax for anyone they delivered to in Washington state.
Those stores must have made a crap load of revenue to owe that much though, unless most of their sales was deliveries to Washington.
This is an example of people not paying the use tax, but usually only business get trouble for it. It would be way too much work for tax revenue collection agencies to go after individuals, with very little (relatively) to show for it.
They'll have to do an opposite sting for me when I retire to Vancouver, where they'll see me driving down I-5 to pick up my RV-23 (or whatever Van's has at the time). No tax if you pick it up in Oregon, only if it's delivered.
I'm running a Fusion drive on my 5K iMac and it's fine by me. The SSD portion is 121GB (according to System Information). I'm sure a pure SSD would be faster, but honestly I never really feel like my drive is slowing me down. The logic of the Fusion Drive is supposed to be that it moves files you use more to the SSD and leaves less-used stuff on the HDD. I don't monitor it actively, but I just know that when I'm doing saves on a big Photoshop file or editing video, everything works nice and smooth.
The only exception is when I have to hit the external USB drive I keep my media on -- and even then we're talking sometimes a 5-10 second burp when the drive spins up (and no, I'm not dropping a grand or more on a 3TB external SSD to speed up iTunes playback...).
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Some Macs really skimp on the SSD size, though. My iMac is a 2014 with a 1TB Fusion drive, of which 121GB is SSD. More recent 1TB Fusion drives apparently have only a 32GB SSD. That's really skimpy and cheap of Apple to pull, but I guess we shouldn't be surprised.
This article below suggests going for a 2TB or larger Fusion drive which still has the 128GB SSD (or just getting a pure SSD if you can take the hit on size).
https://tidbits.com/2017/08/07/imac-1-tb-fusion-drives-have-smaller-ssds/
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According to the MR buyers guide, the average time is about 1 year (370 days), so just going by that it is not unrealistic to see one at the WWDC.
But...
I think it might be a while for a few other reasons. One being that even though we are around the average, if you look at the Mac line as a whole, the average is ever increasing, so 370 days might be low.
Another reason is the iMac Pro. It is still pretty new, and I am not sure if Apple would want to potentially cannibalize sale of the iMac Pro for an update iMac. An argument could be made right now that a maxed out 2017 5K iMac is a pretty powerful machine and not that much slower for many peoples' use cases to justify the higher price tag of the Pro.
If a new iMac had a significant upgrade to power at the same price as now, then this could hurt potential sales of the iMac Pro.
I wouldn't be surprised if a new iMac didn't come out until the end of the year, or even next year.
I don't think I can't wait any longer than june 4th. if they don't announce one I think i'm just going to buy the late 2017 model
If you need one, then you need one. It is not like if you buy one, and six months later a new iMac comes out, yours will be bad.
Back in Dec of 2012, I bought an almost Maxed out Late 2012 27" iMac, except I upgraded the RAM myself, and went with the 1TB Fusion. It is still a very fast and capable machine. I have never used it and thought that it is showing it's age.
OK, but you should try to get a very good deal on it then.
Especially the FusionDrive models.
Not sure if I'd pay list-price at this point.
Its likely they will refresh the iMac, I would be surprised if they didn't. The pro machine is a different animal and comes with quality components you can rely upon to run in an everyday environment for production. I would recommend SSD its superfast in an iMac and makes a world of difference. If anything this is one area you should not skimp on.
I've seen big rebates on Fusion Drive models here, esp. i5 models. But I'm really not sure if I'd be happy with a FD myself. I run VMWare VMs and it will probably be noticeable pretty quickly.
Better to save-up for an All-Flash model IMO. Unless the use-cases are really not heavy at all (Browsing, Email, small documents, no video-editing) and the plan is to buy another one in the next three years.
Better to save-up for an All-Flash model IMO. Unless the use-cases are really not heavy at all (Browsing, Email, small documents, no video-editing) and the plan is to buy another one in the next three years.