I was looking at a grocery receipt, and there are three different tax rates depending on the items. The receipt doesn’t even specify which items are taxed at which rate - just the total at each percentage.
I understand the goal of lower or higher taxes on groceries is to incentivize purchasing healthier options over more processed foods, but does it really affect purchasing decisions when the final price of the items is opaque to the consumer?
As a regular European I never even understood why US shops list prices without tax. It feels just dumb. When I go to store here the store is required to show final price on tag - meaning including tax and recycling/author fee if there’s one. Seems much more user friendly.
As another European, I can at least understand why tax isn’t represented on a US (and Canadian) website since the US is as truly united as a dysfunctional family come inheritance time and tax rates are different from state to state, but to pull that in local stores is something I can only ever see as fraud.
Yeah, I was talking about local stores mainly. Online it’s understandable as every state has its own view on taxes, same as each state in EU (we’re not federation though).
Even then the website can ask where are ye from and then display the appropriate prices if they really wanted.
They can do that for delivery costs, why not for taxes
Yeah same in Europe with different VAT rates between the countries, select where you’re from and shops will show price including local VAT which the shop will take care off
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that’s because sales tax is a municipality level tax as well as a state level tax. towns and counties can issue them. Sucks, right? I agree fully that the price on the label (which isn’t even on the item, it’s on the shelf) should be the price you pay. You shouldn’t add up the tax at the till. That’s the way many stores do it to make it clear that you’re the one paying the tax and that they just collect it and send it to the state. It’s not THEIR tax they’re paying, it’s not THEIR liability (even though they’re liable to give your money to the state don’t get me started it’s just republican/libertarian ideological bullshit). Also, it may trick you into spending a little bit more money. There’s lots of little games that go into why things are priced the way they are. All I know is I shop at the dispensary that rolls tax into the weed price.
Its to entice people to spend more.
I agree it’s dumb, but I’m also trying to understand how politicians think changing the tax rate for healthier or less healthy foods can possibly affect behavior in the USA when it’s set up this way in stores
There’s some evidence it somehow works https://publichealth.berkeley.edu/news-media/research-highlights/do-soda-taxes-work
But I’ve never known what I’ll be taxed on a specific item
That’s what’s so dumb with it! As I said, in EU you see the final price, including tax. So “healthier option” with lower tax would instantly be seen as cheaper than “unhealty” one with heftier tax. This way it could actually work.
Sales tax rates and fees are well known. In my locale, I know food and clothing (necessities) do not have sales tax while prepared meals and most other items do. I also know there’s a deposit on carbonated beverage bottles, vice taxes on cigarettes and alcohol and tourist taxes on downtown restaurants and venues.
I try not to go where the tourist taxes are. I used to try to avoid bottle deposits but realized that many small cans and bottles help my moderation while fewer larger ones do not. Although I do agree that integrating the taxes into the price would help with comparisons, having it called out separately helps with changing habits on entire categories
Actually the gas tax being integrated into the price probably has the opposite effect. I have no idea what I’m even paying for gas tax: it’s just included. But that also means that while I’ll compare gas prices to find the cheaper price (within reason), I never think about whether I should buy gas or not (well, that used to be true but knowing the many reasons not to buy gas’s means now I have an EV - taxes were no part of that)