Watching a documentary, there was aremark from the journalist on how, due to how wildly taxation on goods may vary, from area to area, in the US, most retailers do not put the full prices on the shelves and instead just tally it at checkout.
This made no sense to me, a european, as when I go to any regular shop, prices already include all taxes applicable to the product.
There are specialty stores where VAT and other taxes may not be applied on the price on the shelf but those are usually wholesellers, selling for professionals, that already know what additional taxes will be added and at which rates, at checkout.
Not having the full price you’ll be paying, on display, seems very underhanded and a bad practice. The client should know how much they are going to pay from the moment they pick an item.
I think in pretax numbers and just expect the final price to be higher - how much higher I have no idea because not everything is taxed. It was a major pain in the ass when I only had cash cus I never knew how much to take with me. Now I only use credit cards so it’s much better.
I think that builds into the credit card trap.
You should not need to guess-timate how much you’re going to spend, that is the issue.
If you want to pay in cash, that’s it. Pick up the items, add it in your head, that’s it. Witholding how much you are really going to spend by not applying all charges holds you hostage.
Yes, you can just put it to your card and pay it later but why?
It may help, but credit cards aren’t the reason.
Sales tax is something that can be charged at all levels of government, including individual cities in some states. It is easier to advertise one pre-tax price than deal with the variance of advertising post-tax prices.
And I keep thinking my country’s tax system is weird.
No way! That is ridiculous. That is essentially equating to create tax havens inside your own country. What is stopping people from high taxation states to just go for a shopping spree on a non-taxation one? Or even a city or town? Nothing. It makes no sense.
My country has a mainland and two autonomous regions. All taxation is designed centrally. VAT, special taxes, income, private and corporate, vehicles, land, house, etc, everything is established centrally. The autonomous regions do have the freedom to fine tune the end % of tax but really nothing else. They can’t exempt a tax, just because.
You have discovered Delaware.
That is awful.
It gets worse.
A lot of incorporation law is done at the state level, so most corporations are incorporated in Delaware where there are no corporate taxes and specialized corporate law courts.
A lot of credit and gift cards are out of South Dakota because that state has favorable credit card and gift card laws.
A lot of the laws of the country are written at the state level by design.
That is an entire level of idiocy and corruption by itself.
I imagine that these kinds of issues come up a lot in other federal systems. Not all decisions are made at the national level, with significant decisions made at the local or state level. Hell, a lot of federal agencies’ jobs is to be a resource for states, in both budget and technical expertise.
States in the United States have a lot of the competencies that nations in the EU do, including state run militaries. It is just usually hard for a lot of non-Americans to understand how much power is given away.
I use credit cards cus I get cash back and it’s also how I manage my budget - each major category has its own credit card so I can easily see how much I spend on each category per month and per year.
No amount of cashback is enough to convince me to sign up to one.
Well… maybe 100%.
Eh, I mean they’re designed to be as predatory as possible but if you do math and treat it as a debit you literally just get free money back.
Also you need a credit history here as no credit is treated as the same (if not worst) than bad credit and the only other options for establishing one is taking out loans.
If you’re okay never being able to finance a vehicle or house though, then no credit history is fine as long as you can provide full cash for those purchases up front.
I’m aware of that qwirk in your system. No such thing here. And I have a mortgage to pay.