Europeans doing maths when they're buying stuff in America often get confused when the sales tax gets added at check out.
Our VAT system takes all that confusion away. The tax is already included in the final sticker price of the item. No surprises, ya know.
But when I worked and lived in America, I kinda got used to it. 🤷🏻♀️ Everything was $X.99 plus tax 😵💫😅
I hate it.
8 billion citizens share the same opinion.
Plus tips! That‘s always driving me nuts because in Europe, service charge is usually included in the sticker price (or detailed explicitly on the bill). 😵💫🤯
Funny to recall my grandfather recounting a time when there was no VAT (or Purchase Tax as it was called back then) before it was introduced in 1940 to reduce wastage on “luxury goods” during WW2. It was actually meant to be temporary. Instead, unsurprisingly, it stuck…
😄 Of course. Why would they end the cash flow.
The tax is optional if you pay cash
If it not included in price any should people pay tax for buying things? 😂
i still find it confusing that in the US taxes are not included in the price. i just want to know how much i need to pay, simple as that.
Well, how much VAT do you pay on something you buy? It's impossible for you to figure out without having the complete supply chain and pricing details for an item at every step of production. Even seemingly simple products can have many steps in the supply chain where VAT is added. With sales tax, it's right on the receipt and based on the actual price. If it's too high, you know immediately and can complain.
To me, sales tax is much simpler. I also suspect it's significantly less as a percentage of the final price.
