i will not pay the "Obama tax"

[Ben_Who]

I'll bet his tax that he's of no particular political affiliation; he just figured a good loud rant would spare him that part of the costs. I sincerely doubt that he made it to his age without ever having paid a sales tax before. It's amazing what some people will come up with to stiff shopkeepers.

Love, Who?

[sirwired]

I also can't figure why the mgr didn't report him for theft. He did steal from the store, as the store most certainly will be paying that tax, whether or not the customer actually shoved the money across the counter.

[PepperElf]

Then he leaves. I talked to my manager about it. We can't exactly charge him with theft because he paid most of the cost. He did short us deliberately so we've decided to ban him from the store.

actually you can still charge theft. Especially since you didn't agree to his "offer".
(besides by the "most of the cost" theory, that would mean I could walk into a store, put down oh, $900 on a $1000 TV, take it and claim it's "not theft because I paid most of the cost... and we know that wouldn't work)

Granted that's a bit extreme but your store really did lose money on that sale. Your store still has to pay the sales tax on it, even if you weren't able to collect the fee from the customer.

as the store most certainly will be paying that tax,

i swear i didn't read your post before i wrote mine. great minds think alike!


Also, as another idea... if your store is in a mall, you can also report him to the mall security. it could have possibly been handled as a shoplifting issue (regardless on the SC's beliefs) and ... well hey being banned from an entire mall sounds like justice to me.

She went on a rant *using same snotty tone* that she works for a lawyers office and was going to speak to them about what legal right I had to charge her sales tax. Never did hear back from her.

at least she didn't claim to be a lawyer just because she worked for one.
though... she might also want to ask her boss about the legality in harassing someone at their home number...

[Juggler]

This is why I'm so glad that in Australia, GST (goods and services tax) is added to items automatically. The price that you see on the tag is the price with GST included. The only way to get goods tax-free is through Duty-free stores or through certain outlets.

Unfortunately that is not doable in most of the U.S. In CA there is the state portion, the county portion, the city portion and the special district portion (Special district boundaries are independent of city and county boundaries.) and they are always in flux (usually upwards). Making merchants reprice everything every time one portion of the tax changes would be a nightmare.

[Kristev]

I also heard they do that in Great Britain, helpfully post the entire cost (tax included) to eliminate confusion. It works rather well.

It's amazing how far from accuracy media heads are permitted to be. Or is it more of a poor job our schools are doing at teaching people how to evaluate and judge information rather than just believing everything they hear from their favorite "Expert."

[cinema guy]

I also heard they do that in Great Britain, helpfully post the entire cost (tax included) to eliminate confusion.

It does indeed.

Personally I don't want to pay the thumb tacks.

[Kristev]

There is a different kind of tax that I would be angry if they imposed.

[PepperElf]

Unfortunately that is not doable in most of the U.S. In CA there is the state portion, the county portion, the city portion and the special district portion

same for NY.
state and county tax - and nyc itself may have it's own special taxes too. plus special taxes on certain items... and a couple of categories they're putting back on the taxable list as well.

[smileyeagle1021]

You all think you've heard bitching... try explaining to stranded airline passengers that their hotel bill includes a 5% tax for what basically amounts to a special building fund to pay off a soccer stadium down in Sandy (15 or so miles south of Salt Lake City)... or whatever buiding of choice is the council's pet project for the time being.
You know something though, I've never had someone try to pull the "I won't use it so waive that tax" line... they've bitched about it but never tried to get out of paying it.
And then my other job is funded by the government, so you get the people who bitch about whether or not it is a good use of tax dollars (yeah, helping the deaf, hard of hearing, and mute to communicate is such a waste )

[wolfie]

It does indeed.

Personally I don't want to pay the thumb tacks.

Clerk: You'll have to pay the Obama Tax. (takes out box, sprinkles contents on merchandise)
SC: Those aren't Obama tacks, they're carpet tacks.
Clerk: They're Obama Tax now. (laughs)

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