I am American and there is no benefit to not having the prices reflect after taxation, unless you’re some kind of big business where they screw over the patrons at the register like Walmart does.
The problem is that every location has different tax rates. For example here in Texas I pay 8 cents on the dollar where I live, but other locations have a city and/or a county tax which is added to the 8 cents per dollar state tax.
But shops sell the same items at a different prices anyway. It’s not like the manufacture sets the prices, the retailer does. You occasionally see RRP (recommended retail price) on the product packaging in the UK, but the price you pay is the price the shop lists. Surely in America each store has to print the price stickler/labels themselves, so I don’t understand why this is a valid reason.
I’m not demanding an explanation from you btw- thank you for the response, I appreciate the insight. I’m just genuinely confused to why this is way of pricing items is even allowed!
Unified marketing within a chain. McDonald’s and the like can advertise their $5 special nation wide and not have to worry about every locale’s specific tax.
We also have a metric shit tons of tax jurisdictions. Every state, county, city and special district can add their own tax. I wouldn’t be surprised if there are over 100,000 tax jurisdictions in the US. The people who set the price for a specific good don’t have to worry about tax cutting into the margin. That’s saved for someone else, usually a firm who specializes in tax calculations, at the point of sales.
Just to add on to this, for those who want to understand just how dumb and minute it is, I have different sales tax rates in different parts of my city. 🙃
![[satire] Not the best advertisement for an accountant.](https://lemmy.world/pictrs/image/08c3d02d-9bcd-4a5d-9a96-d31e854201ca.jpeg){kind=link}
I am American and there is no benefit to not having the prices reflect after taxation, unless you’re some kind of big business where they screw over the patrons at the register like Walmart does.
The problem is that every location has different tax rates. For example here in Texas I pay 8 cents on the dollar where I live, but other locations have a city and/or a county tax which is added to the 8 cents per dollar state tax.
But shops sell the same items at a different prices anyway. It’s not like the manufacture sets the prices, the retailer does. You occasionally see RRP (recommended retail price) on the product packaging in the UK, but the price you pay is the price the shop lists. Surely in America each store has to print the price stickler/labels themselves, so I don’t understand why this is a valid reason.
I’m not demanding an explanation from you btw- thank you for the response, I appreciate the insight. I’m just genuinely confused to why this is way of pricing items is even allowed!
Unified marketing within a chain. McDonald’s and the like can advertise their $5 special nation wide and not have to worry about every locale’s specific tax.
We also have a metric shit tons of tax jurisdictions. Every state, county, city and special district can add their own tax. I wouldn’t be surprised if there are over 100,000 tax jurisdictions in the US. The people who set the price for a specific good don’t have to worry about tax cutting into the margin. That’s saved for someone else, usually a firm who specializes in tax calculations, at the point of sales.
Just to add on to this, for those who want to understand just how dumb and minute it is, I have different sales tax rates in different parts of my city. 🙃