Asklemmy

Yes.

Let me tell you when, why, and how I learned that you need to pay attention to taxes.

I was in third grade and my class had a field trip. This was 47 years ago, so the exact details of the trip are lost to time and rusty memory. The lesson remained.

There was something that the class could purchase at the end of the day on the trip and the place only took cash and the school was not doing anything to help, except tell the kids about it and the price. Which was something like $5. I told my Mom and she handed me a $5 bill, plus a quarter, which confused my 3rd grade brain. She said to due to some strange words "sales tax, which was 5% in my state at the time. Got to school that morning and all my classmates were proud that they had their $5 bill, but none seemed to have a quarter. So I kept the presence of my quarter a secret and was a little embarrassed about it. Yes, I was young and stupid. Now I am old and stupid.

When it came time to purchase the whatsit at the end of the day, me and one other of my classmates produced a quarter to buy it. The teachers and chaperones had to cover the sales tax for the other 20 kids and they were pissed.

I went to school and learned a lesson that has stuck with me for nearly 50 years.

We just think about the base price, but the taxes. Then at checkout you're told "oh, that number you had in your head? Add 5-20% more as a surprise"

It's a terrible system, very anti consumer. You never get used to it

Oh, and it also has the fun side effect of making sure nothing ends on a dollar amount

We don't include the tax. You just expect what you pay at the till to be some percent more than the sum of shelf prices. It's a known number, 5% where I live except on a few untaxed items (which I should mention isn't the US, just nearby).

Ignore it.

Sometimes I am like egh, that’s annoying and more than I expected and then carry on with buying whatever it is. But that is a more recent thing, now that am being more frugal. For like a decade I would say I never acknowledged it or thought about it.

Usually no. Taxes are different depending on where you buy. We expect there to be 5 to 9% added on at checkout.

if the price is close to the amount of cash i have on me then i might. usually sales tax is around 7-10% so if i'm in a place where it's higher that gets annoying.

Sales taxes vary based on city, county, and state rates. They can also be waived if you, the buyer, have a reseller permit or are purchasing for a non profit.

It's not underhanded and is annoying for sellers too because they have to know a lot about sales taxes as well. They could show you the price with local taxes included but then most customers would think their prices are too high comparing to other merchants.

So the price shown on the product in a store or online is only what the merchant is selling it for. The price at the register is what the merchant is selling it for plus the taxes they have to collect (unless you're excluded for the reasons mentioned above).

The tax is a buyer obligation, not a seller obligation but sellers have to be an intermediary. So buyers should be educated about the tax laws that apply to them (in this system).

The receipt should be clearly marked so you know exactly how much went to the product and how much went to tax. You can itemize and deduct your sales taxes from your federal income taxes if you're so inclined to track it (and it's a better result than the standard deduction)

It's more complex than a VAT system but enables local jurisdictions to levy taxes to pay for various things applicable to their area.

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The whole argument of "it's cause there's so much variation in tax amount" never really made sense to me as an excuse. Like.. you'd print the labels at the store wouldn't you? So you just put the tax amount in the system for that store and print it.. the only way it makes sense is if for some reason you're shipping price tags across the country

The average American does not include taxes in prices. This is also true in Canada.

I generally assume what I'm buying will cost 10% to 20% more from taxes and/or tips getting added at checkout. I agree it doesnt make sense and seems underhanded, they could post the actual prices if they wanted to.

When you say "people" you're really talking about the stores, right? The stores just put the price they charge, not the taxes which they don't get. Yes, taxes vary from state to state, but it's not like we're all going to different states every day. I know what the tax rate is in my area, and so I know to add that when I see a price in a store.

If you really mean "people" as in customers, it depends. If I'm telling someone that a store has a good price, I'll just quote the store's price. But sometimes when I'm talking about what I paid, I'll include everything "Wow, I can't believe this cart of groceries was $150..."

As someone who lives in one of the states without sales tax, i used to hate it because nothing would ever be exact change, id see a candy bar listed for $1 but actually ifa 1.05 or aomething and now Ive gotta deal with a bunch of coins. Arizona iced tea for 99c... Nah bro you still need aother 12 cents (gotta pay the bottle deposit too)

Its not as annoying now that i pay for most stuff with a card, but in still resent all the other states that force people to do math.