I mean, as a European: have you visited the US and noticed that they don’t even include tax within the price (meaning you’ll pay more at checkout since that’s where it only appears)? It’s ridiculous, most countries include VAT within the price of their goods and services but. At least within the EU, VAT is included within the price making it final without any arithmetic.
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Interesting how the format of your question is the same as this other user’s.
https://discuss.online/post/37515674
Edit: Aaand deleted lol.
There are a few other new accounts with a similar posting pattern that I strongly suspect are LLM driven bots.
I guess it is some sort of experiment how to drive engagement? And people seem to fall for it 🤦
Just had to say something because it’s been going on for about a week now. It’s easiest to notice the patterns on !AskUSA@discuss.online sorted by new.
I see your point. Also … 2d & 7d old
Thanks for the heads up
American here (who lives in Europe). America has a system of sales tax, where tax is collected by the specific state at the point of sale. Sometimes, the municipality collects sales tax as well.
The US does not have VAT, where tax is added cumulatively along the production or supply chain. As long as the manufacturer is selling to an intermediate (a retailer or distributor), they pay no tax for producing the item (although they will pay a tax on their total corporate revenue, real property the business owns, etc). If they sell directly to the consumer, they must charge sales tax.
The sales tax is not listed on the price of the item. The reasoning is that the sales tax is not being charged by the retailer - they are only collecting it on behalf of the government. So the retailer only presents the price that they collect. Also, with the advent of internet sales, the price can vary based on the buyer’s location because sales tax is based on state and municipality; for internet purchases, the taxes are displayed on the checkout screen. This is the same in retail settings - the clerk will tell you the final price being charged to you.
States with higher sales taxes tend to have lower (or no) state income taxes. States with lower sales tax tend to have higher state income taxes or have higher taxes on other goods (like gasoline) or government services (higher fees). Or some combination thereof. Certain categories of goods are exempt from sales tax - groceries (unprepared foods), some medicines, and in a few states I believe women’s menstrual products.
Taxes and tariffs are applied to manufacturers and distributors only for international import and export.
My opinion: I think not displaying the full price is deceptive. I think not taxing VAT along the supply chain is a regressive behavior that places more of the burden of funding society onto the individual taxpayer while leaving corporations with lower tax bills. The US consumer is a bootlicker and repeater of corporate propaganda, so none of this will ever change.
I think not taxing VAT along the supply chain is a regressive behavior that places more of the burden of funding society onto the individual taxpayer while leaving corporations with lower tax bills.
VAT is reclaimed at every point on the supply chain except the final user. That final user pays the entire VAT. Europe doesn’t tax anyone else in the supply chain, as everyone else in the chain can reclaim any VAT they pay. The net VAT paid by everyone else in the chain is zero.
Even if the VAT was paid and not reclaimed, the end user would ultimately be the one paying it. Everyone else would just be passing on their costs - including that VAT - to that end user.
Sales Tax has the same net taxation on everyone in the supply chain. The difference is that the US doesn’t “pay and reclaim” the tax. The US just doesn’t pay the tax in the first place, except for the end user.
Never been to the US but I’ve worked with software where tax had to be set up per country. The US was something else. It’s different per state, area, city. Weird taxes like “we’re gonna build a new stadium tax”. I really wonder how people work with that in real life. Do you go to the register, have it scanned and then decide if the price is worth it?
I have visited the US and yes, it is the stupidest.
As an American, visiting the EU confused me so much because I expected the taxes to be confusing since I saw VAT (acronym not used here) everywhere. In US Tax varies on sales items from place to place but is consistent enough if you aren’t moving around that you learn the general average of tax added. It is annoying but you do see the total before you pay. It’s not completely blind. Just anti-consumer probably sold to my grandparents as pro-business
US does not have VAT, so it is clearly much more straightforward.
It has sales taxes, though. And that’s different.
For B2B customers, this isn’t the case in Europe, btw. At least not in Sweden.
You mean because businesses don’t pay VAT? In that case it makes sense to not include it.
I mean they do, but they can get it back so it’s not necessarily a cost to them. It does make perfect sense, I agree. Just thought I’d mention it.
It’s a bit more complex than that. They don’t pay VAT on business inputs (I think the legal wording is something like “goods and services used for taxable activities”), but they still pay VAT if the business is the final consumer.
For what I can remember, it’s because every state has a different VAT (and maybe it can differ from county to county), so it’s easier for them to display the base price and add VAT only at the counter.
Why would that be easier? They have to calculate the full price including VAT anyway. So why not when printing the price tags?
Because the sales tags are printed nationwide by companies. And local businesses aren’t going to try and figure out the tax by themselves.
AFAIK, VAT is collected by each vendor at every layer in the supply chain. Those collected taxes are remitted to the tax authority. Everyone in that chain - except the final, retail consumer - can reclaim their VAT expenses from the tax authority.
American-style “Sales Tax” is only charged to the final, retail consumer. Everyone else in the chain can issue a “tax exemption certificate” to the seller, who does not collect the sales tax or remit it to the tax authority.
In both systems, the tax and sales price have to be disclosed separately. Under VAT, you have to pay it now and reclaim it later (if eligible). Under Sales Tax, (if eligible), you don’t pay it; there is nothing to reclaim.
Canada also doesn’t include VAT in their prices, which - as a tourist - was quite nice, because the total price in euro was roughly the displayed price in canadian dollar. (VAT roughly cancelled the gain in conversion)
It’s easy to understand. It’s all ticketmaster
