Comments on: Wrong: Prices that don’t include tax

By: Tracy Heiner

Tracy Heiner — Thu, 08 Sep 2011 12:21:25 +0000

This is the second post I’ve ever read on this blog. (Love it, btw). It’s also the second time I am smiling and nodding at Matteo’s comments. We think alike…I ran into some fellow Americans in Dublin a few weeks ago. They were from Chicaco. They said they had a neighbor from the UK complaining about the car parking tax they have to pay. I told them to remind him about the tv tax he used to pay.

By: Matteo Watkins

Matteo Watkins — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 23:52:17 +0000

I love that when I shop in the UK I pay what the label says.. however, I pay a crap load more for just about everything…so the upside is negated… and, the worst tax of all in the UK.. the TV tax… what the F is this about… supporting BBC.. so glad my money goes to pay huge salaries of BBC presenters, management, etc…if it’s the quality programming everyone wants, then let ‘em go private and get their money via private fundraising…. I hate paying for the BBC. But rebelling against the TV tax is kind of like saying “hey, how ’bout we kill the Queen”. It’s too much a part of the collective nostalgic subconscious…kind of like black pudding.

By: Nosoydeud

Nosoydeud — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 00:38:59 +0000

One that I have heard from Michigan is sales tax is charged on the entire purchase not on the individual items. Total taxable items is $100.00 sales tax is 6% or $6.00. Individually the tax could be higher or lower.
$25 = 1.500 $24.99 = 1.50
$40 = 2.400 $39.78 = 2.39
$15 = 0.900 $15.13 = 0.91
$ 8 = 0.480 $ 7.50 = 0.45
$ 2 = 0.120 $ 2.27 = 0.14
$ 3 = 0.180 $ 3.23 = 0.19
$ 1 = 0.060 $ 0.44 = 0.03
$ 1 = 0.060 $ 1.56 = 0.09
$ 5 = 0.300 $ 5.10 = 0.31
6.00 6.01

Both cases total item cost $100, but two different, albeit negligible, a penny more in tax due to rounding.

By: bob

bob — Sun, 17 May 2009 13:02:26 +0000

But clearly the store could include sales tax when they post the cost of the item. The store is not moving from one tax rate to another.

As for saving coins, a pound of change is about $20. Recently weighed my huge water bottle of change, 75 lbs. So the habit of tossing your change in a jar means in a few years that you can buy a new plamsa TV.

By: Rebecca

Rebecca — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 15:27:08 +0000

This would drive me nuts to. Which is one of the many reasons I love living in Oregon, we have NO sales tax. The price you see on the tag is the price you pay.

By: Liz Armour

Liz Armour — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 09:50:45 +0000

This may be a pointless add-on, but speaking of the variety of tax rates… In the capitol of Illinois (Springfield) the tax is 7.75%, but as far as I can remember it’s near 13% (or so) in Chicago. So when my father bought a book in Chicago, then brought it back down here to find out I already owned it, we decided to returned it to the shop of the same chain in Springfield where the poor bloke at the counter was baffled (of course, he had to return the full, 13%-taxed money… begrudgingly).

This is of course why I’m also amazed when people travel to Chicago and buy something they could have bought in Springfield–I mean, they’re just paying more money for the same thing.

By: Daniel

Daniel — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 04:19:19 +0000

As an American (Michigander) I feel that Greg above has the answer spot on.

This is why we own a national debt of over $10,000,000,000,000.

Goverment pays its bills with taxes collected right?

By: Miami Mike

Miami Mike — Sun, 28 Dec 2008 16:57:34 +0000

James in comment #1 nailed it right on. Sales tax is local, sometimes three tiers of it plus a bracket system (if amount between 0 and 10 cents, tax is one cent) instead of a flat percentage – they don’t want those fractions of a cent getting away from them (bastewards!).

Florida has 67 counties, over a dozen different tax rates statewide, some are 6%, some are 6.25, 6.5, 6.75, 7, 7 plus local option, you name it. Colorado has over 300 different tax rates.

Makes it tough for internet sales – anybody know a good programmer who can do Florida sales tax rates by zip code referencing county, plus various local options as well – and the damn things keep changing, too . . .

By: chris

chris — Wed, 17 Dec 2008 04:39:53 +0000

Yessum, in response to a few of these, I got somewhat carried away. I don’t think Washington does sales tax on food either. I’ve decided it was a test of whether you were paying attention.

By: RLC

RLC — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 17:38:40 +0000

Indiana doesn’t tax food items!