My American Brethren! Can you explain this to me?

[Yokai]

They don't have it here in Oregon, which is awesome. I really don't understand why everything doesn't just cost 7% more in states with sales tax. I was screwed once in Washington when I tried to buy a $15 book with a ten and a five. It's confusing and a bit stupid. I understand the need for the tax, but it really seems like there's a better way to deal with it.

 

[FaceFaceFace]

Yeah it's silly, but it's not really that deceptive. Americans are used to it, we know everything costs a little more than the sticker price. I can see how it would be annoying to people from overseas, but hey your money is worth more than ours anyway =P

 

[nunqual]

So the government can get money? It's pretty simple to me. And it's not in all states, some don't have it, I think Pennsylvania doesn't have it, but that might be food tax.

PA has a sales tax, Delaware does not. That's pretty much declared as a tax-haven.

Then again, I have a bias. I live in Philly where putting a page online has a tax (seriously, blogging is taxed and is called a business, I'll let you judge)

Ah, so it must be that they don't have meal tax. I remember going up to Pittsburgh and not having to pay tax on a hoagie.

 

[AquaAscension]

I don't know why the price in full (including tax) isn't included. It could be that we've gotten so used to seeing items listed as x.99 that we figure that it'll cost more anyway?

More likely, though, is that there is not a universal sales tax and that the specific percentage is not codified throughout the nation. Some places (like Delaware I believe) have 0% sales tax whereas Colorado has a 7.5% sales tax. And there are other examples of different tax ranges; therefore, putting a different price tag on an item based on its location would probably be a hassle given the distribution system for our large corporations and such. In fact, the tax varies by city. Also, it appears that California sales tax is 8.25% to 9.75% so get ready to pay about 10% extra on everything you purchase.

 

[Danny Ocean]

EDIT: To clarify, what I'm basically asking is why can't American shops include VAT (or thier equivalent) in their prices?

You know the answer to this. It's easy.

It's because everything appears 7% cheaper, and changing it would incur large costs reprinting every labels and such.

 

[KaiRai]

It's kind of stupid. Why isn't it just included in the price? That would make everyone's life a load easier.

It could be because there are different tax rates in different states, and they put down the untaxed price for standardization. It might also be so that the tax on the item is properly noted, and people don't get confused about exactly how much it costs, and they know what base price they're paying before taxes. It's like with income taxes where you know how much you get paid, and then how much after taxes.

So wait....it isn't 7% in all states? This is confusing the hell out of me. you see a price, take the item to the counter, and they tell you it's actually more than they advertised? That sounds like false advertising to me. Here in the UK that gets you in a lot of trouble.

Still, no idea why they seem to think it's SUCH a ballache adding 7% to an advertised price. I mean, how stupid can you be if you think you're getting an awesome deal, only to be told you have to pay more in a few minutes?

 

[Agayek]

The whole "sales tax" thing. When buying stuff, it says one price when you see it on the self, right? But then when you take it to the cashier, it adds like 7% of the price to whatever you're buying, yeah? How does that make sense? My reasoning for asking this is that I'm going to Hollywood for a holiday next year, and I don't want to get caught out when I try to buy something.

So I'm asking any Americans reading this, why do shops in your country do that? Is there some legal reason why it happens? Do all shops do that over there? And for other people not from America, does this happen in your counrty, or does it make any sense to you? It's something I can't get my head around on my own.

EDIT: To clarify, what I'm basically asking is why can't American shops include VAT (or thier equivalent) in their prices?

Because American shops are dumb. The tax exists for additional state income (in most states), and shops, for marketing reasons I'm sure, simply refuse to add the tax onto the label.

PS - In California, the sales tax is 9.5% last I heard.

 

[Del-Toro]

We have the same thing in Canada, and that fact that they don't add the tax to the pricetag bugs the hell out of me. I mean, I don't mind the sales tax (the income tax, on the other hand...) but I wish they would just straight up tell me what I'm actually paying.

 

[Lineoutt]

EDIT: To clarify, what I'm basically asking is why can't American shops include VAT (or thier equivalent) in their prices?

Because the price looks lower

 

[InnerRebellion]

What? That 7% isn't counted? Over here, we have VAT [Value Added Tax] that's counted in the retail price. Are you telling me that Americans have to calculate 7% of anything they wish to purchase?

I assume it goes to the government, by the way.

Where I live, everyone knows that it is 5 cents per dollar, so it's pretty easy, dunno what's up with this 7% thing.

 

[Twilight_guy]

Sales tax is a government tax on everything you buy (except for a few things). It's been around for a long time.

 

[alittlepepper]

I also think that marketing plays a part in it. In the instances where sales tax is involved, it's more enticing to see a lower price. Even knowing that there is tax involved, *seeing* a lower price might make a person more inclined to buy it. And I think...though my math on this isn't great...that if they add everything up and then take x% of everything instead of each individual item, they get more that way. But that's just a wild guess on my part that I admit could be wrong. I assume it's far more psychological.

 

[Hyper-space]

Oh yeah, sure. The government claims that it is for the good of the people, the sales tax. Yet, we all know the dark-seeded truth that they are really using it to build a robot army to march across the land that...you know, fix our roads, and pick up litter and stuff.

Those...DEMONS!

 

[superbatranger]

Because Americans are too lazy to just put it in the price on the shelf like the English.

It's such a fucking huge ballache. I always forget that my item is gonna magically be more expensive when I get to the till. It's just another stupid American thing

This. Annoyed the hell out of me when I went to the US. Bloody ridiculous that I have to pay more than the price stated.

We have something like that here, called VAT, but the price you see is the price you pay.

Well, shit...why don't we use that? Then again, this whole tax thing doesn't really affect me at the moment. I'm not sure how Costa Rica's tax laws work.

 

[PayneTrayne]

At the liquor store what you see is what you pay. Also, watch out because certain products also have bottle deposits on them that aren't included in the taxes/prices seen. It's stupid.

 

[nothinghere]

Ya, but it could easily just list the price with the tax added in. I dunno why it does that. I guess so it doesn't look like they're just taking a random number out of the total cost of something and giving to the government. So the receipt will print something like this "Sub Total: $7, Sales Tax: $.70, Total: $7.70"

It would probally take more time for money the stores not even going to get.

 

[hannan4mitch]

Well, I used to live in Germany, and the first thing I saw when going to a grocery store was the weird prices (in the US you normally have things that round up/down to the nearest increment of 10 or the nearest dollar), because there (I don't know about other countries in the EU) sales tax/VAT is added to the price of whatever object it is. In the US, sales tax is added at the end, a percentage of you're entire purchase, not the individual items. (or that's what I think...)

 

[Woodsey]

You mean VAT? Yh, we had that in England >>

Yeah, but his point is that it's just added on to the labels over here.

 

[Lord Mountbatten Reborn]

You mean VAT? Yh, we had that in England >>

Had? We still have it, it's just 2.5% less.

Really? I thought they raised it.

OT: What a stupid idea, not factoring this into the shelf price in the first place. Sounds pretty deceitful if you ask me.

 

[hannan4mitch]

Crap, double post...