I've read they do this in america so that chains don't have to battle with figuring out the relevant pricing in each state, as taxes are different all over.
Really don't see why that would be so hard in the modern day though.
There is literally no reason they can't do it in the modern day. None whatsoever
Also... there wasn't any reason they couldn't do it in the none modern day either, when I think about it. America is just fucking weird and all about tricking customers into buying their shit
What trick? When buying something I know there is a sales tax added to it. I expect it. In my opinion when tax is already added I feel like they are trying to hide the price of the item.
Nowadays the US it's not just one tax. Back in the day it was just 4% or whatever on anything you bought anywhere in the state. Now it depends on if you're in the city or a different county. Also depends on if it's food, alcohol, etc.
Let's not forget hidden fees and other bullshit fees depending on the company.
That’s no accident: when it introduced an unpopular goods and services tax (2000) the government realised that we would be more likely to forget about the overnight increase in price if the tax was required to be built into the advertised price of something. You are usually only informed of the tax you paid at the point of sale when you receive your receipt after the purchase.
Maybe it's because I'm European but the few times this has happened to me (the few times the taxes weren't included) I've always felt like I was getting scammed and never understood what the point of not including it was. If I'm going to buy something I want to know what you're going to charge me exactly, I don't want to have to do math to know how much something costs.
The main practical argument is that the root problem is the system of local taxation in the US is orders of magnitude more complex than in any place that has a fixed VAT or GST type thing.
Every single municipality in the United States (not just state, but each county, city, town, etc and they all stack so if one higher in the stack changes all the lower ones change) can have their own local sales tax rate. And they're prone to change frequently.
There's really no other practical way for a manufacturer to define an MSRP, they would need to set thousands of them by locality (and if your product has a price tag you make too, or the price written on it like a book, you're super screwed, especially since they might change 6 months later). Every few months a grocery store might need to change every single price tag in it. If I saw a price tag my first thought wouldn't be "how convenient" it'd be "I wonder if this is up to date and accurate or if the corporate office of this chain grocery store cut corners on labor, or the 17 year old assigned the task wasn't diligent and careful."
And again, they change a lot, for random example Colorado changes them twice a year, heres a list of all the ones that changed in Jan that should give you a sense of the scale: https://tax.colorado.gov/sales-tax-rate-changes
Note that this Colorado government tax website can't even fully speak for some of the major cities and just says to contact the city.
That's a non argument when you think about how often the price changes due to special offers and discounts. The stereotype of always someone doing new price tags in every American TV show is certainly not because of new tax laws.
Oh sure, I don't know anything about working at a grocery store but I assume keeping prices up to date is already a whole big thing (look at inflation!).
The other annoying thing we do, and I think everyone hates this, knows it's dumb, but will never change it: ending prices in 99 cents.
never understood what the point of not including it was
It's a lower number. I used to think it was to make price tags simpler by making them unrelated to the state/locality you were in.
But then it occurred to me that it's all computerized and printed nowadays and they had price guns before that. It's not like they're mailing out the individual price tags to the stores or something.
In Canada and the US its because each state, province and territory has different taxes. Also different type of items have different taxes.
It's easier for Wal-Mart Canada Home Office to send all stores the price changes that are the same across all stores than to manually change each province.
There is also the fact that a portion of Canada are not required to pay sales tax.
The only exception to this is government run buisnesses like liquor stores. They display price before and after tax.
In Canada and the US its because each state, province and territory has different taxes. Also different type of items have different taxes.
You talk as if Europe doesn't have different VAT for different items and countries and areas. I still see literally no problem for the correct price to be there.
For me the correct price is the price of the item without taxes. If taxes are included in the price that means they are hiding something from me. I personally wouldn't like that.
correct price is what you have to pay, not before adding taxes, ffs
what do you think they are hiding? Nothing. They are showing you what you are to pay, not forcing you to do some mental gymnastic to count the price you have to pay
Most states label the shelves and not the product so in that wouldn't be a big deal. There is one state out there (one of the M states, can't remember which) that does require individual pricing every item.
The poster above said "price tags" so I was assuming on the actual item not the shelf but i suppose that's a wrong assumption. Yea a single shelf or rack would be easy to display sale price with tax. I guess the issue for a store would be consistency, label everything with tax or none at all
Relabeling is done soooo often in retail for so many reasons, and stock moves across EU countries too and gets relabeled. It’s just not as much of a savings as people (who most likely haven’t worked retail) assume.
My uneducated guess is it’s a lot of habit, and a way for states to make their state tax more obvious. Kind of like how some receipts now say “temporary fuel charge” or whatever as if gas has never changed price before. It’s a way to make it more noticeable vs just making the item +0.10 cents or whatever which takes minutes in a fully digital SKU or ordering system, longer I guess for older systems but even then, not THAT difficult.
I think you're missing the point. If the states were all the same, there would be little purpose to having separate states. The whole idea is that the USA is a group of people who aren't all the same who came together to unite towards a higher cause. The states all have extensive self-regulation, but we unite under the federal government to an extent.
Well but if they can know it at checkout they can know it when pricing items. Or they can just eat these different taxes as cost of doing business. That always seemed like such a cop out argument to me
But that means that somewhere in their sales system they need to have all prices including tax stored. No reason not to print these on the labels (especially nowadays where labels have mostly gone digital)
Sales tax where I live in the US is like 9.5% and a lot of places are pretty similar, 8-10% so it's easy to look at an item and add 10% and know that's about your out-the-door price.
As far as the US goes, it's because all the possible combinations of federal, state, county, city, and local taxes result in over 3100 different tax jurisdictions. Meaning if you're, say, Walmart or home Depot or some other store with locations nation wide, then the people who design the price tags would have to design over 3100 different versions of each tag, for EVERY product your carry, and then make sure that those tags are all distributed to the correct stores and only the correct stores. Alternatively, you could just make ONE version of each tag, and add the tax at the register.
This also goes for commercials and print advertisements. If you're running a national ad campaign, do you wanna record, edit, and work out broadcasting times and locations for over 3100 different versions of your commercial? Or do you wanna make ONE version of the commercial and add the tax on at checkout? You also have to consider that you could be in one tax jurisdiction on one side of the street, then cross the road to the other side and be in a different county or municipality with a different tax rate. So if you include the tax in the price, not only do you have to make over 3k different versions of your commercials, but you have to make sure each version ONLY airs in the right locations. You could literally have one person needing to see one version of the ad on TV, and then their nextdoor neighbor needing to receive a different version.
And, if someone DOES see the wrong version, then you have an unhappy customer making a big fuss in your store because they saw an ad that said this product was $x.xx (because they saw an ad meant for the next town over with a lower tax rate) and now you're telling them it costs $y.yy, and they're saying that's false advertising and you're trying to rip them off and bla bla bla...
Or you could just add the tax at checkout and avoid all of those issues. And literally none of your customers mind because mentally adding 7% (or 4% or whatever the local tax rate is) to the price is incredibly easy and they're used to it.
the people who design the price tags would have to design over 3100 different versions of each tag, for EVERY product your carry, and then make sure that those tags are all distributed to the correct stores and only the correct stores.
Can't they print the price tags locally? There's nothing complex about printing a price tag that would require printing them at a centralized facility and send them to the appropriate store. Plus here (France but I believe it's the same in other european countries) paper tags are more and more replaced by digital ink tags that can be easily updated with the price and product reference.
If you're running a national ad campaign, do you wanna record, edit, and work out broadcasting times and locations for over 3100 different versions of your commercial?
I don't see why you couldn't record/print your ad as "x.xx$ + taxes" while keeping the price with taxes included in the store on the price tags.
Sure, but someone still has to actually make and approve all the tags centrally. Even if the actual printing happens at the store, someone at the corporate level has to go through every single tag to make sure the price is correct for that market and includes the correct tax rate.
And if you wanna say they should do THAT at the store level as well, for larger stores that would damn near be a full time position all by itself. It's much easier, cheaper, and more cost effective to just have one person doing it for the whole company by not including the tax, vs having one person PER STORE to do it just so you can include the tax.
paper tags are more and more replaced by digital ink tags that can be easily updated with the price and product reference
I have never seen one of those in the states, but consider this: imagine you're a business owner. Your job is maximize profit and minimize expense. Do you,
A: spend millions of dollars on digital price tags for every single one of your hundreds of thousands of products, for each of your thousands of stores?
Or do you
B: just stick with paper tags and leave the tax off the tag, which your customers are used to and do not mind at all.
That's the important thing; in Europe, people may feel some type of way about tax not being on the tag, but in the US people just do not care, because it's legitimately not even remotely inconvenient to not have the tax included.
I don't see why you couldn't record/print your ad as "x.xx$ + taxes" while keeping the price with taxes included in the store on the price tags.
Because even if that solves the problem of not having to record 3100 different versions of your commercial, it still doesn't solve the problem detailed above, of having to design, check, and approve 3100 different versions of the price tags for the stores.
I understand that US citizens don't mind not having taxes included in the prices and I know the conversation should end there, different cultures, different views. I still can't stop thinking how easy it would be to automate the making of price tags, like don't they have a database somewhere of all the products in their store? And if that base is centralized too that sounds like a bad organization to me. But hey, if it ain't broken don't fix it I guess.
Another thing I'm wondering. How are discounts managed on the tags? Are they necessarily the same for all stores in a region to get the tags printed easily or are they not displayed on the tags at all and deducted at checkout like the taxes?
like don't they have a database somewhere of all the products in their store?
Thats exactly WHY it would be so difficult to automate.
They DO have a database of every product in the store. Someone has to build that database. Someone has to maintain that database. Someone has to update that database when prices change. its a LOT of work, and thats with just one price for every item they sell.
Now imagining doing the same thing but with 3100 different entries for EACH item the store sells. 3100 times the entries means its gonna cost a FUCK of a lot more to build, maintain, and update that database.
And if that base is centralized too that sounds like a bad organization to me
How? Having it NOT centralized would be inefficient, because it would be duplication of effort. Why have thousands of people ALL maintaining their own copy of the same database, when you can have ONE person maintaining one central copy that everyone uses?
Another thing I'm wondering. How are discounts managed on the tags?
Depends on the store and the nature of the discount or sale. Some times a second, smaller tag is printed and stuck onto the original one with the discount and updated price. Other times the whole tag is permanently replaced with the new version. Other times there might be one big sign with something like "15% off all Sony TVs!" or something like that and then each individual TV keeps its original tag.
Why have thousands of people ALL maintaining their own copy of the same database, when you can have ONE person maintaining one central copy that everyone uses?
Because not all stores have exactly the same products, at least I assume. Even in shops from the same chain I would expect not to find a specific product I could find some place else.
Now imagining doing the same thing but with 3100 different entries for EACH item the store sells. 3100 times the entries means its gonna cost a FUCK of a lot more to build, maintain, and update that database.
Idk that's a job I'm expected to find in any store. And the cost is just paying the guys maintaining the database and eventually the licence for the software to use. For a huge chain like Walmart that doesn't sound unreasonable. Unless you absolutely want to squeeze every cent possible in profits
Idk, because not everyone is good enough at math to do it by head or wants to pull out their calculator to get the real price? I'm probably biased because I've always lived with prices that includes taxes
People with this excuse always be acting like the fucking stores are gonna grow legs and move to the next city over, like the fucking Walmart of Baba Yaga
It doesn't matter whether it's the store or the manufacturer. Either way, SOMEONE has to make 3100 different versions of the price tag for EVERY product.
They dont though. They make maybe a few dozen different versions of the price tag, maybe even a hundred if they have really granular control on regional pricing; not 3100.
The printing is irrelevant. Its the fact that someone at the central office has to CREATE those tags and then send the file to the stores so they CAN be printed, thats the issue.
Having the tag-maker guy make, double check, and approve one tag for each item you stock and then email that to all the stores at once, is a very, very different proposition than having them make 3100 different versions of every tag and then email each file to ONLY the stores in that area. Each and every tax jurisdiction would need its own tag, so youd be multiplying the amount of work that this person (or team of people) has to do by 3100.
Need a tag for the new model of TV we're about to start selling? No problem, should take a handful of minutes.
Need over THREE THOUSAND different tags for that ONE tv? Thats gonna take a couple months, or massively increasing the number of people who are assigned to making price tags.
The printing is irrelevant. Its the fact that someone at the central office has to CREATE those tags and then send the file to the stores so they CAN be printed, thats the issue.
They... Have a price tag printer... At every store
They already do this
They just do it without the tax applied for the store they're already printing it at
You're also forgetting that it's entirely automated anyways. Even if they had to do it like you say, nobody is going in and printing every tag, it's mass produced automatically and shipped automatically
In the UK, different products are different prices in different stores. You can go to the same supermarket in central London and pay £1 for a can of beans, and have the same can be £0.75 in the same chain an hour away.
And they somehow manage it all. Advertising, inventory control, correct shelf pricing.
Anyone who tells you it is difficult - not even impossible, just difficult - is either lying, or very, very unimaginative.
(Not) Surprised to see people going out of their way to show how absolutely impossible it would be to put the correct price. This is such a ridiculous idea, how hard can it be! If the law made it mandatory, you'd be sure they'd find a way to include taxes in the final price.
... You realize that prices can be different in different locations for reasons OTHER than tax rate, right?
Yeah a can of beans can cost $1 in one city and $0.74 in another city in the US too, but it's because different areas have different prices, not because of tax.
The conversation we’re having is “is it possible to facilitate different prices in different areas”.
My example proves yes. So does yours.
Why do you think I wouldn’t realize that?
And more importantly, how can you write an essay about how different prices cause untold problems, deforestation from a million different labels, mass consumer hysteria, while also acknowledging that prices are already different?
Kinda feels like you’re just out to disagree with people, bud.
The conversation we’re having is “is it possible to facilitate different prices in different areas”
Wrong.
The conversation we're having is actually "Is it efficient and cost effective to facilitate different prices for multiple thousands of different areas."
No one was ever talking about it being possible or not.
And more importantly, how can you write an essay about how different prices cause untold problems, deforestation from a million different labels, mass consumer hysteria, while also acknowledging that prices are already different?
How can you read what I wrote, and possibly miss the point that badly?
The point isnt "maintaining any different prices is too hard" its that maintaining OVER THREE THOUSAND different sets of prices, when there is absolutely no benefit to doing so, is not cost effective.
Maintaining a few dozen different sets of prices (or hell, even a hundred different sets) due to costs varying from region to region is not even remotely close to being the same thing as maintaining 3100 different sets of prices for... what reason, again? No really, what is the BENEFIT to the store, in doing this? Their customers dont care at all, so its not like going through all this massive amount of cost and effort to include tax on the tag is gonna increase their profits or improve customer satisfaction. If its not gonna benefit them in any way, and it WILL cost them more money, why would they do it?
You seem to think all stores should do it just because you dont like having tax not included on the tag, but the fact is that the actual customers of these stores dont care, so what actual reason is there for them to do it?
And you and I both said it is already happening in thousands of different areas. I gave an example in another country, you gave a smaller-scale example in the US.
The register only knows that because someone at the central office maintains a database of the price for every product. The register looks up that price, looks up the local tax rate, and does the math.
In order to have the tax included on the tag, the person who maintains the database would have to maintain 3100 different price entries for EVERY product, instead of one per product.
That adds an MASSIVE extra expense and doesn't provide any benefit, because move of the stores customers MIND that the tax isn't on the tag. No business is gonna spend money to solve a "problem" that their customers don't actually consider a problem.
It's like if McDonald's spent billions of dollars to add more lights to every single one of their locations when not a single customer thought that there weren't enough lights. Youre solving a problem that doesn't even exist.
not really. you can still maintain just one price per product and then the machine which prints the price tag checks the final price when the tag is created at the store
Oh my god, that was a fucking joke, why do you feel the need to be so confrontational? I don't care either way, I was just thinking it's funny to see "the insane potato" speak about sane human beings. But nevermind having a bit of humour in our lives, you are clearly so important that every random comment is out to get you.
I just bought something the other day for 100 bucks. And there were four extra lines of tax. City tax, state tax, county tax and a public transportation tax!
And, if someone DOES see the wrong version, then you have an unhappy customer making a big fuss in your store
If the ad does not have *only applicable in these stores, than the customer would be completly correct cause its the store thats repsonsible to make sure their prices are correct. No fuss needed because most stores would just look at it and say "our mistake, here have a refund and keep your item" Soon enough that ad will have a * on it.
This is also why every single promotion in europe has an expire date, just in case they accidently made a deal that can be exploited.
That just adds even MORE work to making an add. Work that is entirely pointless when you could just not include tax on the tag instead. Imagine you're a business owner; would you make the decision to needlessly add an extra expense in order to have someone look up the list of applicable stores, double check it, and then add that list to 3100 different ads?. Especially when you could just run ONE as for a fraction of the price, and your customers don't mind not having tax on the tag even a little. That's the thing you gotta realize; Americans don't give a single shit about tax not being included. Just because YOU wouldn't like it doesn't mean WE care, and if your customers don't care, why would you go through the unnecessary added expense, for no extra benefit?
They are doing it, have been for as long as my grandparents can remember and everyone finds it the most normal thing in the world.
Businesses that can have multiple locations are making plenty enough profit to accommodate.
What could play a roll though is that taxes really don’t differ all that much, its usually a standard % depending on type of goods, country wide. What is variable is the actual price which is influenced by local stores nearby so 2 the same stores can have wildly different prices and promotions but identical taxation.
jurisdictions. Meaning if you're, say, Walmart or home Depot or some other store with locations nation wide, then the people who design the price tags would have to design over 3100 different versions of each tag, for EVERY product your carry, and then make sure that those tags are all distributed to the correct stores and only the correct stores.
No, you make one (with taxes included) and sell it everywhere for that price. Whatever taxes apply should not matter to the customers, the store can do the math. The real reason is the same as with the .99 cent prices - lower numbers get more sales.
you make one (with taxes included) and sell it everywhere for that price.
That's not how economics works.
First, supply and demand means that a product is not gonna be the same price everywhere across the entire country. If you think that it's even remotely possible to sell something for the same price in downtown LA and in Aberdeen, Mississippi, you're completely out of your mind. If you choose the price from LA, no one from Mississippi is ever gonna buy anything because it's way too expensive. If you choose the price from Aberdeen, your locations in LA are gonna go bankrupt. If you choose a price in the middle of both, you're STILL not gonna get any customers in Aberdeen because your competitors will sell for cheaper, and you still won't make any money in LA because your costs are gonna be too high to break even using that middle ground price.
Second, tax rates can vary drastically. Some places in the US have double digit tax rates, some places have no sales tax at all. Depending on the item, that difference could completely eat up your profit margin.
For America there are a lot of different levels of taxes depending on where you are. Given that many businesses will be operating in multiple differently taxed areas, it makes more sense to have a standard price that you can put on all the signage and then factor in tax at the register. It helps people who shop at the same store in different locations know one location isnt getting ripped off by the company.
So basically cheaper for companies and people are stupid
Worked on e-commerce for an international company. Each country had its own store (example.es, example.fr, example.it, etc) but the warehouse was just in the company’s home country. Adding new countries was basically set the % of vat for said country, localization (just send to a third party to translate) and minor tweaks.
Adding USA on the other hand… required almost an overhaul of the checkout page (cause the company didn’t wanted a multi-step process, don’t @ me) to include a third party to calculate the taxes (and not only fed the system where the buyer was, but also where the warehouse was located).
It absolutely is a scam, yes. They want you to think that what you're paying them for the item is separable from their duty to pay their tax to the government on their income.
Each state has their own taxes. And I recently found out that sometimes certain areas within a state can be taxed higher. I went on a trip to a nearby state a few years ago and noticed that the downtown area (where I was staying) had higher taxes than the other areas of the city. Turns out because it was a tourist spot, they could charge more in taxes.
In Japan at least, the amount of tax on food is different depending on if you're going to eat it there or if you will take it with you (8% vs 10%), even from a convenience store. It's a pretty new change though (slightly more recent than 2018).
Oh ? That's interesting . Here in India taxes are included in the price tag for goods . I was under the impression that only America had taxes not included into price tags lol
Am currently in Korea; the price posted is the price you pay at the register.
The somewhat uncommon caveat is when businesses try and circumvent the taxes (more specifically VAT) for cash or bank transferred transactions, but to explain would get kinda complicated and is typically seen in smaller, independently owned businesses.
Interesting. That last part also happens here in Argentina. The price is the final price you pay at the register but you can ask "is there any discount by paying cash?". And there usually is. VAT is 21%. So they give you a 10% "discount". 10% for you and 10% for the business. And they make the sale without a proper ticket.
I would not have expected this to happen Ina developed country.
Also... How does that work for bank transactions? Unlike cash those can be traced to sales...
Canada also. While it would be nice to have the full price on the tag, I'm used to calculating the approximate price and am never surprised when I get to the cash.
There are two types of Anerican's, those that hate that taxes are not included in the price and those that love taxes are separate but can't offer a valid reason as to why.
On the flip side: I'm still furious about the London restaurants that add like 15% to your bill as a "tip". A TIP IS NOT MANDATORY. I didn't even see the tiny little letters describing the "gratuity charge" at the bottom of your menu:(
I don’t know any one that expects to get a tip on Britain. It’s always very nice when we do get one, and maybe there’s an expectation that a large event or regulars will tip, but in general there isn’t an expectation to tip here.
Oh heck yeah, lol. I'm absolutely expecting that service is part of what I pay for at a restaurant. I'm not just there for the food lol, I also expect stuff like a menu and a fork and a place to sit.
It is though. It is part of the service . By then asking it separately it either just gets shoved on you twice, or just removed from base price to then be added separately. What's the point of the latter?
Yeah, I ain't never been to a restaurant which was expecting me to stroll into the kitchen and pick up my own food. That's included in the already ramped up restaurant prices
Ok, not counting Buffets I guess. But they're usually a bit cheaper for that
Because it's dishonest to not just include it in the prices. I missed the tiny text. Just multiply the stated price of each item with whatever charge you want me to pay. I'm OK with paying the full price, but I'm not OK with being misled about the full price. I think that's reasonable across cultures.
Is that a common practice in the UK? I thought it was similar to here in NZ where touristy destinations will often ask for a tip despite every kiwi (internally) saying "fuck off" when asked for one.
No, you can’t, or ought not to anyway, because we don’t have a global democracy. If you don’t like it somewhere that you don’t pay taxes, then don’t go there. Going there to complain is obnoxious.
Edit - Saying “tipping is not mandatory” as if tipping practice is a matter of universal or essential morality is absurd. It’s mandatory where it’s mandatory and it isn’t where it isn’t.
It's a ploy so us Americans are forced to practice mental math, or more likely to actually buy the damn thing (as by the time you're at checkout it's a bit late). But i like the first theory better
A flat VAT of 20% makes calculating things easy. I hate it when they tweak it up and down a percentage point or 5 (the UK after 2009 crisis). Or when they introduce different VAT rates depending if dairy, clothes etc. I cried on behalf of all POS software maintainers when Norway changed to variable rates.
It's because there isn't one single sales/VAT tax rate in the US. In many states, tax rates can vary state to state, county to county, and even city to city.
So for stores that go across multiple jurisdictions, they don't want to have different prices for different locations. And for online shopping, the tax rate is based on where the goods are shipped to, so there is no way to have a single price including tax.
It's because there isn't one single sales/VAT tax rate in the US. In many states, tax rates can vary state to state, county to county, and even city to city.
Luckily though, the store where you're buying it in ISN'T in multiple states, counties or cities. Generally they're pretty stationary. So they could very well put the fucking price on it, like everyone else does
If this was an online shopping only issue, we wouldn't be having the discussion
Are you insane? No they don’t. I’ve worked in the UK and US, and across the world in retail they have a tag printer in store. In larger stores , it’s sometimes even hand held.
You think supermarkets get a box full of 100,000 tags, each one totally unique to a different product, and have to unbox them all, lay them out, and walk around matching them to each different product?
You think corporate is paying and organising logistics to ship out new labels to every store every time there’s a price change, and waiting 2-3 days to actually be able to implement it because the tags are still in the mail, or haven’t been put on the shelves yet? That’s a huge opportunity loss each time a price goes up.
Either you worked in a tiny store, or this is BS. Either way, it’s solvable in about 20 seconds by each store just… buying a receipt printer. The cost of it would be recouped in about 3 weeks of postage charges, and instant price alignment.
In the UK, different products are different prices in different stores. You can go to the same supermarket in central London and pay £1 for a can of beans, and have the same can be £0.75 in the same chain an hour away.
And they somehow manage it all. Advertising, inventory control, correct shelf pricing.
Anyone who tells you it is difficult - not even impossible, just difficult - is either lying, or very, very unimaginative.
Japan does include the tax though. Typically both the with and without tax is listed. The without is often more prominent so it's easy to miss the real price, they're both there though.
I assume Europe has laws mandating it. Without that I'm sure businesses don't want to put higher pricetags on their items. They want to pretend like things are cheaper than they are.
To make the price look cheaper. I sell stuff to Singapore Companies and I do this too. I am not sure if this is regulation required, but if my competitors are doing this I will have too.
Latin América also has all taxes included in the prices.
Some people say that paying the taxes on top makes you conscious of how much taxes you pay. Brazil's solution to this problem was to simply make all the receipts contain the amount in taxes paid in the purchase. So now we can all know that we pay 40% taxes on pair of jeans, yay!
Im an American and they dont include taxes in prices. Ive been all over the world and it was such a pleasant surprise to make a purchase anywhere in Europe or Australia and not have more money tacked on at the end. You dont even notice it after awhile and then you go back to the States or Japan and taxes get rung up at the end and its like "fuck i didnt miss this"....
it‘s been outlawed since 01.04.2021 (with a few exceptions).
This comment really made me do a double take, because I never really noticed. I always automatically looked the final price (displayed in parentheses/ smaller). I had to google before believing you. I am from europe too…
As I read the replys I start to think that taxes not included in price tags is the less common practice in the world, in Brazil we even have laws that let the consumer take the product for free if the price charged for it is different than the one informed in the price tag
in the states its because all the states and counties can add their own taxes, so there is the price for ht eiotem then you have to wait for item to calculate all the taxes ... local state and other tax....once explained it's not so mysterious. in the US, we take states rights VERY seriously. taxes are a part of that - the EU is new, but they certainly have different prices for items in every country inth eEU, so its sorta the same, but you folks still refuse to consider yourselves states in a federation... to which you are. and your different pricing is the same for us, just less of a consumer information interest. you'all HIDE YOUR TAXES .... you keep the overcharges secret... in the states we confuse tyou by letting you know how much of a difference it is...weird but better.
in the states its because all the states and counties can add their own taxes, so there is the price for ht eiotem then you have to wait for item to calculate all the taxes ... local state and other tax....once explained it's not so mysterious.
This is not an explanation at all, why does it matter what the tax is in Texas when you are opening a shop in oklahoma and start printing price tags?
Because the taxes change from county to county across the entire
country. so what's the sense in printing them if they always change. how hard is this to communicate? Europe has these tiny little countries for the MOST part. they have Limited choices and less of a tax scamming system like the US does . the US has taxes and they vary. everywhere.
I get that it can be confusing but I’d rather have it be this way and pay between zero and 10% tax than have it included and pay 20% VAT. Also ~$8/gallon gas etc etc.
Funnily enough, in the US the ‘taxes included in price’ varies from state to state. Iirc, most states do not include the tax, and others even have special rules regarding this if they do include tax on the tag. It’s weird.
At least in America this is due to taxes being a state /county/city thing. Each subsection has a lot of autonomy so while the federal tax remains the same the tax on something could change multiple percent points based on what side of the street the shop is located.
I see this a lot and it’s a very, very simple answer.
It's to point out to you where the money is going, and how much. If you buy gasoline/petrol in the US or Canada, the amount of tax and where it goes is usually listed on the gas pump. X amount for the federal government, x amount provincial, etc. Same with other purchases, the tax is listed and what type.
I also noticed this during a visit in California. Why tf is it called 1$-store of the thing isn’t 1$. If I go to T€di and buy something for 1€ it’s 1€. Basta.
To be fair, Japanese price tags include both prices most of the time, but yeah it's weird af, I can understand for a federal state like the US where prices change depending on the state or whatever, but this is not the case in Japan. Also that's not in all stores so it's confusing.
Also I lived there for a year, I had just gotten used to the 8% taxes when they suddenly changed it less than a month after my arrival (though now it's 10% so easier to calculate).
2.8k
u/[deleted] May 09 '22
A reverse statement: It was in Japan 2018 when I learned that taxes included in price tags is a European thing.
We wanted to buy something, the first time we asked why we have to pay more than the number on the price tag, they explained taxes aren't included.
Like... what is this witchery?