"You people are killing me!" (sales tax, again)

[Mamadrae]

yup that area is very fragmented. city is higher than the Cook County suburbs but if you go outside of Cook County ...... well I am not sure anymore

THank goodness that we have only a base tax of 5.5% ...... but in our county we have the infamous PACKER TAX of (I think) where we add another 0.5% or something like that

My husband's company does software to help those government morons keep accurate files. Not all are stupid but dear god some of the stories. You want workers with no clue what the hell they are doing look at elected officials. Most have seriously no idea what their job even entails. I keep telling Hubby to just get on here and vent but he refuses.

Illinois tax laws differ from county to county. How the hell the company keeps them all straight is beyond me. Then you add in them expanding into Missouri and other states...my brain just dies.

[MadMike]

(it should be illegal to price goods minus a tax)

That may be possible for a small mom-and-pop business that operates in only one location, but it's not so easy for these big companies that are national or even state-wide. Every state has its own sales tax (for some of them it's zero), and in some states, it even varies by county.

[mattm04]

Ya, no sales tax in Oregon, but I always get dimwits buying soda or beer who bitch about the price bing higher.

It's called bottle deposit dumbass....It's not new.

I see that all the time. SC buys a 12 pack...but the sign said X for $X!? why is it more!!!!

Ummmm...the bottle deposit has been around for how long now?

[Midnight_Angel]

If there is a sale at a store in the EU do you go through the entire store figuring out what the tax is on the new price and marking it accordingly? That seems like a bigger hassle than dealing with the occasional dimwit like the one in OP's post.

Actually, all the prices are listed including tax only. Thus, if a TV comes at, say, €599, the sales tax worth 19% of the pre-tax price is included in these €599. If the store sells this set at the given price, they get to keep €503.36, while €95.64, being 19% of this amount, go to the government. This way, customers will only 'see' their final price.

If the set gets marked down to €499, once again, all the customer gets to see is the final price, while 19/119 of this price, €79,67, are going to be tax.

That may be possible for a small mom-and-pop business that operates in only one location, but it's not so easy for these big companies that are national or even state-wide. Every state has its own sales tax (for some of them it's zero), and in some states, it even varies by county.

I see. Here in the EU, sales tax is identical throughout a single country, and thus, just a constant percentile markup.

[Digitalpotato]

Boy, Some Subway customers actually complain about having Sales Tax for a $5 item. It's JUST 34 cents!!!!

[Broomjockey]

I see. Here in the EU, sales tax is identical throughout a single country, and thus, just a constant percentile markup.

I went in to a fairly detailed explanation for the difference here.

Though it deals specifically with New Zealand, it applies to EU countries as well. Just look up your square mileage for the specific comparison.

[nuthing12]

Tax is 12% where I live in Canada. But I'm happy to pay it for what it provides us. I fractured my foot last winter and had to visit a doctor 4 times to make sure it was healing right.

My total bill?

A whopping $25 for crutches. Tell me I don't live in the Greatest country on Earth

[Ironclad Alibi]

Around here, even if you buy an item in New Hampshire (no sales tax), you're required to pay the tax on it (6%) when you bring it back to Maine.

Virginia has a "Consumer Use Tax" which is equal to the sales tax, 6%. It is due on all mail order (including Internet) purchases over $25.00, and is supposed to paid when filing the state income tax return. Being a volunteer tax, I have often wondered how much they collect.

If you're talking about CARS, the way they get you is when you go to register the vehicle. It's the same way in Massachusetts. They collect the tax at the RMV if you can't prove that you paid it some other way.

When I moved to Maryland many years ago (not there any more) they a charged an excise tax equal to the sales tax on all cars registered in the state. The excise tax was due if you never paid the Maryland sales tax on the car, even though you had paid sales tax to another state when you bought the car.

There is an interesting caveat about ordering things by mail (or UPS, Fedex, etc.). If you live in a state that has a sales-tax, the only way you WILL be CHARGED sales tax is if the company you are ordering from has a retail store that you can walk into in the same state (at least this is true in Mass).

Not every internet merchant actually DOES that though. Barnes and Noble, for example has sold things to me online and did not charge sales tax, even though there are plenty of B&N stores in my state.

Many Internet/mail order companies are set up as a separate corporation from the brick and mortor stores for that very reason. As a separate corporate entity, they don't have to collect the sale taxes in every state with a store.

[tropicsgoddess]

I live in California. In the County where I live sales tax is 9.75%. I have to go to the next county to get a sales tax of 8.75% when I want to buy something big. That 1% makes a difference!

Tell that guy to come CA and then he'll have something to complain about.

Damn, your state's sales tax is HIGH!!! Mine is 6% in Florida.

[Mike Taylor]

I live in California. In the County where I live sales tax is 9.75%. I have to go to the next county to get a sales tax of 8.75% when I want to buy something big. That 1% makes a difference!

Tell that guy to come CA and then he'll have something to complain about.

Better than that, tell him to go to Chicago where sales tax is now 10.25%!

[smileyeagle1021]

Oh, if people really want to bitch, let's talk hotels, shall we.

Salt Lake county the total taxes on hotels comes to 12.65%

[QASlave]

sneaks away and looks up the definition of sales tax. We have none in montana.

You may not have a sales tax, but we all pay for it somehow. (vehicle registration, property tax, etc.) Unless you live in Nebraska where you get shafted on all three.

[drunkenwildmage]

3 years ago, the county, instead trying to raise real estate taxes (Which has to be voted on buy the public) tried to do a end around when they did the normal 3 year revaluation of property values.
The evaluators tried to jack up everyone's property values up 25% or more, and in some cases values doubled (Stories of people buying $60k homes in 2004, only to be apprised by the county to $100k - $120k in 2006 were VERY were common ). When they did this, they forgot, that our county has a website that public real estate information, including property values, transfers, zoning requests,appraisals, etc.



A shit storm was created when some citizens went on this website to do some research and discovered that City(including the Mayor's personal house) and County official's houses went up considerable less, or in some cases even when down as compared to their neighbors. Once this broke, the country suddenly decided to allow for requests for revaluations.

[Ad_Astra]

Protege got the western part of PA...Philadelphia is 7% with the plan to increase it 1% every year for the next 5 years. Ugh.

Oh well, I'm in part of Philly that driving to NJ for gas that's $.20-$.30 cheaper a gallon on average (and they pump it for you) or to Delaware for 0% tax on everything else is feasible.

[protege]

Protege got the western part of PA...Philadelphia is 7% with the plan to increase it 1% every year for the next 5 years. Ugh.

Now that just sucks. Why the hell does Philly need a 12% sales tax in 5 years? Are they trying to drive business away?

Oh well, I'm in part of Philly that driving to NJ for gas that's $.20-$.30 cheaper a gallon on average (and they pump it for you) or to Delaware for 0% tax on everything else is feasible.

As much as I'd like to, that's not really an option here in SW PA. Sure, we can go into West Virginia and Ohio...but it's a bit of a drive. There's not really much in either state, and any money you'd "save" would quickly disappear into gasoline.