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Comment by StavrosK | Hacker News Reader

I've been to the US a few times, and it puzzles me why you don't add the sales tax into the price. I mean, it's a certainty it will need to be added, you can't not pay it, so it's a sane default for 99% of cases (if you have some sort of reason not to pay, you can just think of it as a discount on price).

Why waste all this time from millions of people tens of times a day just to add 9% to a price?

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Part of it is that sales taxes are set by the state, and in some cases, municipality/city, since there is no federal sales tax.

For example, in Massachusetts we pay a 6.25% sales tax. Though across the border in New Hampshire, there isn't a sales tax at all.

Hmm, you mean it's easier for inter-state businesses to have unified catalogs? I think local businesses wouldn't care much about that, since they're located in one state, no?

Or do you pay different amounts of tax based on where you live, rather than where the business is?

Sure, it also makes the prices look lower.

I believe that if you buy in tax-free (Salem) New Hamsphire but bring the goods back into Massachusetts, you are supposed to fill out a MA tax form. Assuming you are a Mass resident

Yes, that's called a Use Tax, and it applies to things like Amazon purchases as well if they cross state lines and you weren't charged sales tax on the purchase.

Where is the wasted time? I think foreign tourists get hung up on calculating the tax themselves, so they know how much the bill will be, while most Americans just pay the total that gets rung up.

One argument I've heard is that it keeps you aware of how much tax you're paying.

Just the opposite is probably more important. Since sales taxes can vary locally (city, county, state) hiding the real price prevents people from noticing they can get cheaper goods by driving across an imaginary line.

Example: There is a walmart in both Cityville and its suburb Township. Cityville has a 9% sales tax but Township has a 7% tax rate. Both stores can advertise that they're selling a tv for $500, even though it costs $545 in Cityville but $535 in Township.

This helps prevent people from driving to the Township store to save money, because the advertised price is the same and most people won't think about the tax rate difference.

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