I could never work it out when I was over in the US. Why don’t you guys include tax in your prices? Why must a dollar hamburger actually cost me a $1.08? Is there a historical reason for it? OR do y’all just like to keep reminding yourselves how much the gov’t is actually taking from you?
I think that is the reason.
On items with other (non sales) taxes, vendors often put up a notice about how much the tax is… like gas stations. Just so you can’t forget how much your paying. :)
A lot of us want to get rid of income tax with holding, so you have to write out a big check at the end of the year.. same reason.
Aside from gas stations (there’s an exception to your rule, Zzip ;)), movie theaters are the only other thing I can think of where the tax is included (they charge you $3 for a small drink and that’s your price)
In VA, the sales tax is generally the same (as far as I know)—it’s now 5% (they raised it from 4.5% like 2 yrs ago). They just lowered the tax on groceries from 4% to 2.5%, and there is no tax on certain things that I am assuming are pharmaceuticals (I don’t pay tax on saline or tylenol, but I pay tax on toothpaste and shampoo)
I think the restaurant tax differs from city/county to city/county, and is generally around 10-12% (there are lots of tourists in my area, so this tax may be lower in another area)
So, got that?
In VA alone you pay:
10% restaurants
5% on merchandise
2.5% on groceries
0% on pharmaceuticals (? or something)
Now, if you drive over the border to NC........... ;)
I don’t know about other states, but every year Texas has a tax-free weekend, where certain items have 0 sales tax. This applies to almost all clothing items.
NH is 0%, except in restaurants where it is 8%. ‘Taxachusetts’ is 5%, including restaraunts, except August 13, which is a sales-tax holiday for items costing less than $2500. Neither state has a grocery tax exept for certain HABA stuff, prepped food, and beer and wine (which you can purchase in a grocery store in NH, but not MA)
On the subject of Americans and beer...well, my experience has only been of people the same age as me who haven’t been old enough to legally drink in the States, so it’s hardly a fair comparison. Still, me and my mates all remember the day we had to go pick up one of the Americans in our flat because he was passed out outside a club by half ten. You wouldn’t have thought there’d have been that much vomit inside one person!
Then again I’m hardly one of the great drinkers of the world, but on the plus side it means I get drunk on the cheap, which suits me just fine.
As for Belgian beers - watch ‘em Johnny! Those monks double or triple brew them - it’s something pretty damn impressive to end up drinking a beer that’s 12%.
Exceptions to the rule: No taxes on grocery. I work at a chain similar to Einstein Bagels. If you buy a bagel to go, there is no tax (or if you just buy “bakery” goods). If you order anything for here or a sandwich, drink, etc...that is taxed.
Also, if you live in Indianapolis, there is a 1% sales tax on food and beverag in Marion County (was used for the RCA Dome, was supposed to be temporary). As of July 1, 2005, Marion County and most of the neighboring counties have a new 1% sales tax on food and beverages for the new football stadium (replacing the RCA Dome) and expanded Convention Center.
There are also new hotel taxes, football taxes, etc...in addition to it because of the football-convention center stuff.
The state of MN taxes at 6.5% on most items, that’s like the 5th highest in the country. Clothing and food for home consumption are not taxed. Liquor and beer used to be 9% until his past December. This was an attempt to come in line with http://www.streamlinedsalestax.org/
Now, on top of the state sales tax, there are taxes for individual locations such as cities and counties, or even parts of cities. For example, the city of Minneapolis has an additional 3% tax on downtown liquor, entertainment, lodging, downtown restaurants, and an addition .5% sales tax. The liquor and restaurant taxes only apply downtown, not in any other area of the city.
Since I live just a mile or so from Minneapolis, if I spend locally I don’t pay any of those taxes. But if I go to a bar in downtown Minneapolis, I pay lots of those taxes. If I drive a few miles to cross the border to Wisconsin, it’s only a 5% sales tax, except is most counties that also add an extra .5%.
Now, actually, come to think of it, in the UK we can opt sometimes to ‘take away’ and we don’t pay VAT. Seems to happen at places like Starbucks (the food has two prices). I’d forgotten that. So there IS some degree of variation.
Hey deus - Busch is about 12.5% and just lovely. The Belgians have turned beer into an art form, from the bottles the beer come in to the glasses that you drink out of. My favoutite is Pauwel Kwak which is a glass placed in a wooden stand that looks like something you would see in a chemistry experiment.
Notthegoatsguy - 5% is not to bad...way to go indiana!
For some real tax fun, here in NY it is illegal for the local power utility to list certain taxes on your bill. The city and state governments do not want people to know how much of that total is actually tax as opposed to the price per unit.
Deus, Arsenal, (since you two guys are pressing/warning me about Belgian beer.) what do you guys serve your fleet at sea? When I was a guest aboard one of your frigates, I had the mess table’s beer ration for 3 days pressed on me at dinner. I, only following orders of course, finished off about half of it before my memory fails me. I awoke back aboard Pegasus the next morning with a killer hangover and all the emergency equipment I had been sent to borrow and no memory of how I crossed decks. Though I do remember it tasted fairly good for government issue. :-)
You sure they didn’t mix it up for you a little? I have spoken to people in the forces before and heard tales of sending other allied forces soldiers into oblivion for a laugh. I would doubt any of our Beers would do that damage....maybe it was cider...the real scrumpy is lethal. Its cloudy and flat but boy do you pay a price if you drink too many pints of that stuff.
Seems to happen at places like Starbucks (the food has two prices). I’d forgotten that. So there IS some degree of variation.
Why wouldn’t you always just pay the lower price?
If you want to ‘eat in’, you have to pay the VAT tax. So they ask when you buy it. If you opted for the lower ‘take out’ price, and then went and sat down, I presume they’d go over and ask you to leave, or pay the extra. But not sure how hard they’d try. I dunno, maybe I’m the only honest one !
You sure they didn’t mix it up for you a little? I have spoken to people in the forces before and heard tales of sending other allied forces soldiers into oblivion for a laugh. I would doubt any of our Beers would do that damage....maybe it was cider...the real scrumpy is lethal. Its cloudy and flat but boy do you pay a price if you drink too many pints of that stuff.
Wouldn’t have a clue what they might have done. But I drank about (1/2 of 8 guys over 3 days) 12 days approx. worth of rations. Didn’t seem to hurt our reputation any.
You sure they didn’t mix it up for you a little? I have spoken to people in the forces before and heard tales of sending other allied forces soldiers into oblivion for a laugh. I would doubt any of our Beers would do that damage....maybe it was cider...the real scrumpy is lethal. Its cloudy and flat but boy do you pay a price if you drink too many pints of that stuff.
Wouldn’t have a clue what they might have done. But I drank about (1/2 of 8 guys over 3 days) 12 days approx. worth of rations. Didn’t seem to hurt our reputation any.
Unless it was Old Tom, a dark real ale. It’s about 9% proof, but tastes twice as strong. You can only buy it in half pints over here. I’ve lost days to that stuff…
I didn’t realize how complicated all this crap with taxes was.
Michigan, it’s simple. 6%. Got that? 6%
Restaurants, or non food items are taxed 6%
So you go to a grocery store, there’s tax on everything that isn’t food.
Only exception is pharmacy stuff. Prescriptions carry no tax.
You go out to eat? There’s taxes.
Period.
Heh. I was reading through the posts thinking the same thing, Pyro. Michigan is easy, very uncomplicated. I bet making it simple like this saves on the amount of government time and money and paperwork involved at tax time.
Heh. I was reading through the posts thinking the same thing, Pyro. Michigan is easy, very uncomplicated. I bet making it simple like this saves on the amount of government time and money and paperwork involved at tax time.
To be honest, I don’t find it that confusing. It’s all added in at the register, so most people don’t even think of it. The only reason I know the various percentages is because WalMart and Target itemize them on the reciepts (as opposed to other places that just say “tax = $x.xx”, they have it separated out like “tax A $4.50 @ 0% = 0.00, tax B $1.00 @ 5% = 0.05” or something like that.) Since I tend to buy stuff for different reasons (and it comes from different money), I notice things like that on the reciept ;) It’s the same thing with restaurants — sometimes when i go out with my family we don’t split the check, so we have to figure the whole thing out, which we are generally able to do down to the penny.
As for the basic issue at the beginning of the thread — wanting to know how much stuff is going to cost, I generally round prices up to the nearest half dollar when I’m totalling up my stuff. That’s my ghetto way of including the tax. For every thing that is $1.99 and gets rounded to $2 (i.e. not enough to cover the tax), there is something that is $2.30 and gets rounded to $2.50 (i.e. more than it’s tax would be) to make up the difference. In the end, I usually end up with a high estimate, but it’s usually like I’m planning on spending $9 and the actual bill is $8.79.
Here in the last colony, the District of Columbia, the tax situation is really wierd.
There are no taxes on groceries. (bread, mayonnaise, etc)
There is a high tax on resteraunt food, like 9%. It is geared towards screwing, errr… I mean “taking advantage of” the tourists.
Our sales tax on goods, is 4.5 %.
And then there is a slightly high income tax.
But, all in all I don’t really mind. I am happy to do my civic duty and contribute to the common good and the community. I don’t mind paying taxes as long as they are spent wisely and legitimately, and on good programs that benfit me and the community.
In my opionion, when it comes to Federal income tax, I say anybody below $30,000 per year shouldn’t have to pay. They have hard enough time making ends meet.
