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0 pointsjcranmer4mo ago0 comments

Prices in the US are not tax-inclusive, so the effect of sales tax ruins that plan.

0 comments

dmoy4mo ago

And sales tax varies a loooooot, and change constantly

There's 12000+ distinct sales tax regimes in the US

https://sovos.com/content-library/sut/state-by-state-guide-t...

Individual stores generally only have to deal with one. Set the prices at the store, and make them tax-inclusive while you're at it. This isn't rocket science.

Companies serve billions of web pages per second. We can't handle 12,000 tax calculations?

jandrewrogers4mo ago

If only it were that simple. Some sales taxes are conditional at the point-of-sale. Different customers may pay a different tax rate. This creates a situation where the display price will be incorrect part of the time and may not round to 5c or whatever the legal quantum is.

pwg4mo ago

> make them tax-inclusive while you're at it.

Often not a choice the retailer has. Local laws often require the shelf price be "not tax-inclusive".

Reasons why vary, one common one is that in some instances different customers pay different rates (or none at all).

kelnos4mo ago

I wonder if this could encourage retailers to start advertising tax-inclusive prices. That way there's no rounding in the customer transaction (if they set all their tax-inclusive pricing at multiples of 5 cents), and then the sales tax would just be calculated in aggregate, and paid electronically with no rounding.

flymasterv4mo ago

That’s illegal in a lot of places.

thinmalk4mo ago

We had a coffee shop that tried to do it. Listed prices included taxes, and the total prices were in nice whole numbers (IE, $2 for a cup of coffee, $5 for a latter, $8 for a sandwich, etc.). But regulators stopped them and they had to go back to listing the prices without the sales tax.

It's frustrating how much needless friction gets put into the system.

degamad4mo ago

Advertising the tax-included price is illegal? Where?

(No snark - serious question, as I'm not from the US, and would love to see the legislation and justification which required that...)

1 more reply

bjourne4mo ago

So you're telling me that when I buy stuff for 12.34 that is not the amount I have to pay, but some bigger amount that I have no way to calculate precisely unless I know exactly which sales tax rules are applicable for my purchase? It's baffling how backasswards the US is.

theandrewbailey4mo ago

American taxes are Conway's law, but for politics.

hahn-kev4mo ago

Don't forget the county and sometimes city tax. That's why it's not possible to list the real price.

bux934mo ago

Taxes are rounded to cents already, so this is obviously not an issue.

throw202511014mo ago

Is the tax unknown at the time of setting the price? If that's the problem, set the final price at price + tax, deduce tax, display that. What's the matter?

vel0city4mo ago

If its a wide region ad (can even be just across a metro area) showcasing a price then yes, they wouldn't know the price at a given store because the tax rates can change in less than a kilometer.

If there's a TV ad for a medium pizza for $10 at a chain they can't possibly know the tax rates for whatever actual store I'm going to go order from.

And the listing on a website won't know until I actually put in my shipping information.

evilkorn4mo ago

I doubt that most people in the US know the local sales tax. Let alone any change that may occur due to laws changing or traveling. I'd like to see the out the door price listed but that throws the 99 cent game off retailers like. Also I don't shop very often but Aldi US is the only place I've seen the eink price displays, the rest still have paper.

17186274404mo ago

So they just make the price with tax a multiple of 5 cent and still show the price without.

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