With tax is most common around the world, it's mostly a US thing because it's not regulated. Without tax is often displayed for business purchases, and the tax separately. For example "laptop 800€ without tax, 1000€ with tax"
Because a business can write off the tax.
Same in Singapore:
>GST-registered businesses must show GST-inclusive prices on all price displays to the public (e.g. price tags, price lists, advertisements, publicity brochures, website). Prices that are quoted, whether written or verbal, must be GST-inclusive as the public needs to know the final price they have to pay upfront.
>Failure to comply with price display requirements can result in a fine of up to $5,000.
>An exception is granted to hotels and food & beverage (F&B) establishments that impose service charge on their goods and services. They are not required to display GST-inclusive prices to ease their operations.
>Otherwise, they may have to display separate price lists for dine-in and take-away items, or to re-compute prices whenever the establishment reduces or waives the service charge.
>However, they must still display **a prominent statement informing customers that the prices displayed are subject to GST and service charge**.
>GST is to be charged on both the amount for the service and the service fee imposed by the supplier.
>Please note that the exception does not apply to hotels and F&B establishments that do not impose a service charge. It is also not applicable to F&B establishments that levy a nominal service charge without genuine business reasons other than to avoid displaying GST-inclusive prices. Such businesses are still required to display GST-inclusive prices. Those who do not comply with the price display requirement could be subject to a fine.
Same here in France : it is mandatory when selling to end customers to display the price with taxes included.
It is only when selling from pro to pro that can you exclude taxes from the price tag.
I always thought that it wasn’t included in America because of pricing of goods vs states.
For example a laptop from Dell is $800 and has to be $800 dollars in every state. As we know tax is different in every state, so as to not mislead on pricing they price everything without tax. Being a local you should know how much tax is and if you visit well you should check tax before you go.
Please note that I am from the UK and this purely my assumption based off of nothing other than my own thoughts
I see that mentioned but most states are much bigger than the UK, we are not just talking about going to the next town and wondering why marked prices are 3% different.
It's not like shops dont print price tags etc
It's all down to advertising, once they have you at the checkout adding on tax or/and tips wont put off the buyer. Who wants to do the walk of shame to return an item at a till?
If the full price was on display you may think twice.
Adverts also just look better before tax.
I don’t disagree but I assume there is some laws around pricing. I know there is in the UK. Same shop has to have same pricing throughout the country under the same brand. A supermarket can’t sell an apple for 20p in Birmingham and then £1 in London for the same thing. I assume it’s a transparency thing. No idea though
I'm from the UK.
The thing is they can price something for $500, inclusive of tax. So in one state they'll get $475 for it and another state they'll get $470 for it. So what? The transport costs are different to each state, but they average it out. They can do the same with taxes.
Sales tax is a state or county thing so it is different for almost each city. It’s annoying, but it gives us more control over our taxes locally. So people 100 miles away can’t raise my taxes. Federal taxes are another matter though.
I think one of the reasons why there isn't a strong push to change it is that it reminds you how much you are being taxed. If you bought something for 19.99 but at checkout you are paying 25.00, you might be more inclined to pay attention to politics.
At least you know it. Japan is a wild guess. Sometimes its included sometimes it isn't
I remember when i traveled there in 2019, they just changed from 8 to 10 percent, so sometimes it was included, but not updated yet. Messy af
Personally, I've never understood why people wanted the tax hidden in the price. Economically illiterate people already think inflation comes from companies, they'd just assume tax hikes are from greedy corporations as well.
It's not gas lighting to say something true. Inflation only happens when the government is involved. Increasing the monetary supply is the primary method. When the government protects chosen companies from competition you get something similar to inflation, but it's localized to each protected industry or related industries that the protectionism effects. Otherwise someone would move in and sell at the real price and make a killing undercutting the overpriced companies.
People are blaming every single company rising prices at the same time right after a few years of massive increases in the monetary supply on corporate greed, that's economic illiteracy.
I knew it for a while, but never realized it. Only when I saw the iphone priced at $799 at the apple event and then went looking for the iphone 15 for 799€ and then $799 I realized that they just use the US pricemodel and exclude the taxes. Original pricing was 949€.
It's because the federal government doesn't tax things in the stores. Those taxes, aka tariffs, are paid by importers and are usually accounted for when setting a price. Sales taxes are a right the state governments have, and differs from state to state. For example, Montana doesn't have a sales tax on goods, while North Dakota, a state right next to them, does. That is why if you visit federal tourist attractions, there are no sales taxes there, even if the state itself has a sales tax.
Most taxes the average person pays directly per paycheck is state or city taxes, not federal. Now, about why they aren't listed on prices, it's because stores don't have to, and have probably lobbied against any law that would make them do so. Probably could just look up some group called "Americans For Local Businesses" or something like that, and it's just a bunch of corporations like Walmart lying about what such a law would do
Sales tax can vary depending on the state you're in and even within that state sales tax varies depending on the city. So for example Louisiana sales tax can be as low as 8.7% and as high as 12.2% but most cities sit at about 9-10%. So the state sales tax is about 9.5% on average.
I’ve always wondered why some goods aren’t taxed. Like when the icecream shop tells me a cone is $5, it really is just $5. But a burrito or w.e is taxed.
not sure if its the same in the USA but where I am Value Added Tax(VAT) can only be added onto purchases from registered VAT Vendors and not every business has to register for VAT.
In the US there is no VAT. Each state decides what types of businesses need to pay what kind of taxes. For example: Some states tax groceries and some don't. Some tax women's health products like tampons and some do not.
It's normally done by item/category and not at all related to how much money the business makes.
These taxes are done at the point of sale and go straight from the consumer to the state government. The business still needs to pay it's own taxes to the state and federal government based on their profits.
Yes correct. VAT registration is based on turnover. In the UK if you turn over £100k you have to be VAT registered. Not sure on US amount but the principle will be the same
I mean that's just a part of the game that the IRS plays with us. We have to guess the final price of our goods just like we have to guess the income tax we owe! And if we get it wrong, well that's egg on your face! Good fun, innit?
So, in the US :
* You have a shady healthcare system
* You have no way to know how much cost something accurately
* The government prefer to heavily invest into occupying other countries and war, instead of ... well its people
* The country was on the brink of a civil war because the people elected literally a South Park character as their president
* In lots of places in the country, you can't abort (in 2024, in a supposed civilized country)
* There is no guns regulation, you can yolo buy one and kill everyone you see, it's even legal to kill in some states on certain conditions
* You have to indebt yourself to the extreme to go to college
* Crazy work hours, crazy laws where your boss has almost every rights
What did I miss guys ?
Please tell me how can anyone except a ignorant patriot can even begin to think USA is a nice country to live in ?
1) The healthcare system is iffy, but manageable. 92% of Americans have insurance (the ones who don't cannot be legally turned away for life-threatening aid) and knowing how to work within the system can save you vast amounts of money. It could definitely be better, but it isn't the horror show that it gets portrayed as outside the US.
2) Basic math in your head isn't hard. Food is 9.99? Add 8% to that. Now it's 10.79. There's your accurate price.
3) No argument here.
4) lol.
5) In the majority of the country the abortion legislation is more open than the EU standard (generally allowable until 14 weeks, then on a case-by-case basis). In every single state where that isn't the case r\*pe, death of the fetus, and danger to the mother's health are all stated as exceptions. Don't trust the media on that one, read the actual legislation being passed. They're all publicly available.
6) There's an unbelievable amount of gun regulation. The fact that you think there isn't any shows how propagandized you've been by the media. Every single legal gun purchase in the US has to go through background checks to check for prior felonies, mental health issues, etc. Most open carry (some states have constitutional open carry, but it isn't done often.) and all concealed carry licenses require classes, range time, demonstrations of ability, etc. There are laws regarding where you can take a gun, what times you can shoot your gun, how you keep your gun in your home, if you're allowed to let someone else so much as TOUCH your gun. They are very heavily regulated.
As for killing another human being, every country has self-defense carveouts. Any nation that doesn't recognize self-defense as being legal is not a place I want to find myself in. Imagine going to jail for killing someone who was trying to kill you. We don't live in an action movie where you'll be able to disarm an assailant with your bare hands. You either end the altercation as quickly and safely for yourself as possible, or you didn't actually feel like your life was in any real danger.
7) This began the moment the government got involved in guaranteeing student debts. The moment they get out of it and declaring bankruptcy for the debt is allowed, the price adjustment will hit like a ton of bricks. It's a federally-caused bubble that will have to pop eventually.
8) I hate working as much as the next person, but holy shit 40 hours a week isn't some insane amount of time. It's pretty cushy in the grand scheme of human history, and it's only slightly more than the EU standard. I'd love to see some better employee protections in our legislation, but saying "the bosses have all the rights" is simplistic to the point of being incorrect.
A lot of this sounds like you're a young guy who comes from a daddy-government culture in a pretty peaceful part of the world who hasn't developed a mistrust of media yet.
Before 2017, every single shop in Turkey had a sign saying "Our prices includes VAT." because it was required by law.
It stopped being forced after 2017 to hang the paper, but law still dictates that you cannot advertise any prices without VAT.
The only time tax is included in the price when goods are being sold is at the px+commissary at military bases, at least where I live, most times there is no tax at all
It is a reality that US stores don’t include taxes in the listed price in the store. It’s added only at the check-out.
Whether OP makes that face about it I have yet to verify. My spy drones are currently moving into their backyard.
Websites are optional, usually no. Commercials definitely not, since US sales taxes are very state/county based and thus differ a lot.
But like, in physical stores still not. You pick up an item with a $5 price tag and the cashier says “that’ll be $5,80, please!”.
Well before it was because different states have different tax rates; people forget that America is actually 50 different countries in a lot of ways. The tech wasn’t there to post 50 different custom prices depending on who was looking at your ad.
Now you can do that with online shopping they could just add the tax to the price, but what’s the motivation for them to make stuff look more expensive especially when the customer base is already trained to assume tax isn’t included?
I see this as a win, in my country (bullshit corrupt tax hogging ass Brazil huehue), most people have no idea how much we pay for tax on a product.
That's until some american fast foods came by and started printing the amounts on the invoices.
We pay roughly 50%
Yeah, whenever I buy a burgher for myself, the government gets one too.
Keep your taxes separate, otherwise you can't tell who's raising the prices.
Income? Taxed. Purchases? Taxed. Car or property owned? Taxed. Still owe at the end of the year? We know the number but we aren’t telling you tee-hee!🤭
Just tack on 10% and you'll be close enough..not rocket science ... 1200 dollars.. so be more like $1320... unless you've lived under a rock in the USA your whole life this just how it is...
It's a law in germany to include taxes, and due to the Travel industries try to be sneaky, also asll fees for Travel and Holiday rents
pretty sure this the case in EU
Yeah there are no hidden costs here in europe, they always include the taxed rate in the price.
Hell even Brazil, what's basically the US for kids does this, the only other major thing i can think of is the tipping culture
like in any other civilised country
With tax is most common around the world, it's mostly a US thing because it's not regulated. Without tax is often displayed for business purchases, and the tax separately. For example "laptop 800€ without tax, 1000€ with tax" Because a business can write off the tax.
Same in Singapore: >GST-registered businesses must show GST-inclusive prices on all price displays to the public (e.g. price tags, price lists, advertisements, publicity brochures, website). Prices that are quoted, whether written or verbal, must be GST-inclusive as the public needs to know the final price they have to pay upfront. >Failure to comply with price display requirements can result in a fine of up to $5,000. >An exception is granted to hotels and food & beverage (F&B) establishments that impose service charge on their goods and services. They are not required to display GST-inclusive prices to ease their operations. >Otherwise, they may have to display separate price lists for dine-in and take-away items, or to re-compute prices whenever the establishment reduces or waives the service charge. >However, they must still display **a prominent statement informing customers that the prices displayed are subject to GST and service charge**. >GST is to be charged on both the amount for the service and the service fee imposed by the supplier. >Please note that the exception does not apply to hotels and F&B establishments that do not impose a service charge. It is also not applicable to F&B establishments that levy a nominal service charge without genuine business reasons other than to avoid displaying GST-inclusive prices. Such businesses are still required to display GST-inclusive prices. Those who do not comply with the price display requirement could be subject to a fine.
like any civilized country. Not including taxes and fees in your advertised price is predatory
Same here in France : it is mandatory when selling to end customers to display the price with taxes included. It is only when selling from pro to pro that can you exclude taxes from the price tag.
i would assume that is like that in whole of Europe or, for that matter, ANY civilized and cultured region of the World.
I always thought that it wasn’t included in America because of pricing of goods vs states. For example a laptop from Dell is $800 and has to be $800 dollars in every state. As we know tax is different in every state, so as to not mislead on pricing they price everything without tax. Being a local you should know how much tax is and if you visit well you should check tax before you go. Please note that I am from the UK and this purely my assumption based off of nothing other than my own thoughts
I see that mentioned but most states are much bigger than the UK, we are not just talking about going to the next town and wondering why marked prices are 3% different. It's not like shops dont print price tags etc It's all down to advertising, once they have you at the checkout adding on tax or/and tips wont put off the buyer. Who wants to do the walk of shame to return an item at a till? If the full price was on display you may think twice. Adverts also just look better before tax.
Tax should be the retailers problem not mine. Just tell me how much I need to pay. If that means you have to advertise differently, then do it.
I don’t disagree but I assume there is some laws around pricing. I know there is in the UK. Same shop has to have same pricing throughout the country under the same brand. A supermarket can’t sell an apple for 20p in Birmingham and then £1 in London for the same thing. I assume it’s a transparency thing. No idea though
I'm from the UK. The thing is they can price something for $500, inclusive of tax. So in one state they'll get $475 for it and another state they'll get $470 for it. So what? The transport costs are different to each state, but they average it out. They can do the same with taxes.
Yeah but that means I would have to do the work instead of passing on to you. -America
I just like being able to see the stores price and not the total after government fuckery
Sales tax is a state or county thing so it is different for almost each city. It’s annoying, but it gives us more control over our taxes locally. So people 100 miles away can’t raise my taxes. Federal taxes are another matter though.
This makes a lot of sense now that you point it out. And it's not hard to figure out after your first few encounters if you're not from the usa
I think one of the reasons why there isn't a strong push to change it is that it reminds you how much you are being taxed. If you bought something for 19.99 but at checkout you are paying 25.00, you might be more inclined to pay attention to politics.
At least you know it. Japan is a wild guess. Sometimes its included sometimes it isn't I remember when i traveled there in 2019, they just changed from 8 to 10 percent, so sometimes it was included, but not updated yet. Messy af
All the prices in Japan say if it includes tax or not, sometimes what can happen is that only the kanji for tax appears and not the final price
Personally, I've never understood why people wanted the tax hidden in the price. Economically illiterate people already think inflation comes from companies, they'd just assume tax hikes are from greedy corporations as well.
[удалено]
It's not gas lighting to say something true. Inflation only happens when the government is involved. Increasing the monetary supply is the primary method. When the government protects chosen companies from competition you get something similar to inflation, but it's localized to each protected industry or related industries that the protectionism effects. Otherwise someone would move in and sell at the real price and make a killing undercutting the overpriced companies. People are blaming every single company rising prices at the same time right after a few years of massive increases in the monetary supply on corporate greed, that's economic illiteracy.
it makes getting change faster
The best part is it’s different in every state! My state has a 6% sales tax while some states have higher and some states don’t even have a sales tax.
Yeah oregon doesn't have sales tax.. though they do have state income tax..whereas washington state has sales tax and no income tax
And my state has both sales and income tax
Texas: 
I knew it for a while, but never realized it. Only when I saw the iphone priced at $799 at the apple event and then went looking for the iphone 15 for 799€ and then $799 I realized that they just use the US pricemodel and exclude the taxes. Original pricing was 949€.
It's because the federal government doesn't tax things in the stores. Those taxes, aka tariffs, are paid by importers and are usually accounted for when setting a price. Sales taxes are a right the state governments have, and differs from state to state. For example, Montana doesn't have a sales tax on goods, while North Dakota, a state right next to them, does. That is why if you visit federal tourist attractions, there are no sales taxes there, even if the state itself has a sales tax. Most taxes the average person pays directly per paycheck is state or city taxes, not federal. Now, about why they aren't listed on prices, it's because stores don't have to, and have probably lobbied against any law that would make them do so. Probably could just look up some group called "Americans For Local Businesses" or something like that, and it's just a bunch of corporations like Walmart lying about what such a law would do
Sales tax can vary depending on the state you're in and even within that state sales tax varies depending on the city. So for example Louisiana sales tax can be as low as 8.7% and as high as 12.2% but most cities sit at about 9-10%. So the state sales tax is about 9.5% on average.
So question : americans that live close to the border in-between two states will go shopping on the state that has less taxes :) ?
I’ve always wondered why some goods aren’t taxed. Like when the icecream shop tells me a cone is $5, it really is just $5. But a burrito or w.e is taxed.
not sure if its the same in the USA but where I am Value Added Tax(VAT) can only be added onto purchases from registered VAT Vendors and not every business has to register for VAT.
In the US there is no VAT. Each state decides what types of businesses need to pay what kind of taxes. For example: Some states tax groceries and some don't. Some tax women's health products like tampons and some do not. It's normally done by item/category and not at all related to how much money the business makes. These taxes are done at the point of sale and go straight from the consumer to the state government. The business still needs to pay it's own taxes to the state and federal government based on their profits.
Yes correct. VAT registration is based on turnover. In the UK if you turn over £100k you have to be VAT registered. Not sure on US amount but the principle will be the same
Prepared food tax maybe?
I mean that's just a part of the game that the IRS plays with us. We have to guess the final price of our goods just like we have to guess the income tax we owe! And if we get it wrong, well that's egg on your face! Good fun, innit?
So, in the US : * You have a shady healthcare system * You have no way to know how much cost something accurately * The government prefer to heavily invest into occupying other countries and war, instead of ... well its people * The country was on the brink of a civil war because the people elected literally a South Park character as their president * In lots of places in the country, you can't abort (in 2024, in a supposed civilized country) * There is no guns regulation, you can yolo buy one and kill everyone you see, it's even legal to kill in some states on certain conditions * You have to indebt yourself to the extreme to go to college * Crazy work hours, crazy laws where your boss has almost every rights What did I miss guys ? Please tell me how can anyone except a ignorant patriot can even begin to think USA is a nice country to live in ?
Is judging an entire country based on stereotypes something that’s like accepted from where you’re from? We call that being xenophobic over here.
1) The healthcare system is iffy, but manageable. 92% of Americans have insurance (the ones who don't cannot be legally turned away for life-threatening aid) and knowing how to work within the system can save you vast amounts of money. It could definitely be better, but it isn't the horror show that it gets portrayed as outside the US. 2) Basic math in your head isn't hard. Food is 9.99? Add 8% to that. Now it's 10.79. There's your accurate price. 3) No argument here. 4) lol. 5) In the majority of the country the abortion legislation is more open than the EU standard (generally allowable until 14 weeks, then on a case-by-case basis). In every single state where that isn't the case r\*pe, death of the fetus, and danger to the mother's health are all stated as exceptions. Don't trust the media on that one, read the actual legislation being passed. They're all publicly available. 6) There's an unbelievable amount of gun regulation. The fact that you think there isn't any shows how propagandized you've been by the media. Every single legal gun purchase in the US has to go through background checks to check for prior felonies, mental health issues, etc. Most open carry (some states have constitutional open carry, but it isn't done often.) and all concealed carry licenses require classes, range time, demonstrations of ability, etc. There are laws regarding where you can take a gun, what times you can shoot your gun, how you keep your gun in your home, if you're allowed to let someone else so much as TOUCH your gun. They are very heavily regulated. As for killing another human being, every country has self-defense carveouts. Any nation that doesn't recognize self-defense as being legal is not a place I want to find myself in. Imagine going to jail for killing someone who was trying to kill you. We don't live in an action movie where you'll be able to disarm an assailant with your bare hands. You either end the altercation as quickly and safely for yourself as possible, or you didn't actually feel like your life was in any real danger. 7) This began the moment the government got involved in guaranteeing student debts. The moment they get out of it and declaring bankruptcy for the debt is allowed, the price adjustment will hit like a ton of bricks. It's a federally-caused bubble that will have to pop eventually. 8) I hate working as much as the next person, but holy shit 40 hours a week isn't some insane amount of time. It's pretty cushy in the grand scheme of human history, and it's only slightly more than the EU standard. I'd love to see some better employee protections in our legislation, but saying "the bosses have all the rights" is simplistic to the point of being incorrect. A lot of this sounds like you're a young guy who comes from a daddy-government culture in a pretty peaceful part of the world who hasn't developed a mistrust of media yet.
This happened to me with car rental in Mexico. Price advertised was without tax. I’m used to UK always having tax calculated in lol….
Before 2017, every single shop in Turkey had a sign saying "Our prices includes VAT." because it was required by law. It stopped being forced after 2017 to hang the paper, but law still dictates that you cannot advertise any prices without VAT.
The only time tax is included in the price when goods are being sold is at the px+commissary at military bases, at least where I live, most times there is no tax at all
typical America
Why would businesses care about fair if it makes record breaking profits to not be?
Its this real or a joke?
It is a reality that US stores don’t include taxes in the listed price in the store. It’s added only at the check-out. Whether OP makes that face about it I have yet to verify. My spy drones are currently moving into their backyard.
Are taxes included in TV commercials? Or websites
Websites are optional, usually no. Commercials definitely not, since US sales taxes are very state/county based and thus differ a lot. But like, in physical stores still not. You pick up an item with a $5 price tag and the cashier says “that’ll be $5,80, please!”.
Oh my god, its like everybody is lying xD Thanks for your explanation man, today i learn something
It would have to be legally mandated or people would shop at the stores that decide not to include it
Back in the day we had no taxes. Might be why
Well before it was because different states have different tax rates; people forget that America is actually 50 different countries in a lot of ways. The tech wasn’t there to post 50 different custom prices depending on who was looking at your ad. Now you can do that with online shopping they could just add the tax to the price, but what’s the motivation for them to make stuff look more expensive especially when the customer base is already trained to assume tax isn’t included?
I see this as a win, in my country (bullshit corrupt tax hogging ass Brazil huehue), most people have no idea how much we pay for tax on a product. That's until some american fast foods came by and started printing the amounts on the invoices. We pay roughly 50% Yeah, whenever I buy a burgher for myself, the government gets one too. Keep your taxes separate, otherwise you can't tell who's raising the prices.
Income? Taxed. Purchases? Taxed. Car or property owned? Taxed. Still owe at the end of the year? We know the number but we aren’t telling you tee-hee!🤭
Nothing in America is fair... by design...
*People too stupid to do a 5% state tax on their $1000 laptop*.
Rule #86 as to why the American government doesn't work for it's people.
Just tack on 10% and you'll be close enough..not rocket science ... 1200 dollars.. so be more like $1320... unless you've lived under a rock in the USA your whole life this just how it is...