Rebuilding Rob

As WordPress continues to recycle old prompts, I pulled another prompt from The Coffee Monsterz Co to respond to today

Do you think tax should be included in prices, or added at checkout?

To paraphrase Dazed and Confused: it would be a lot more convenient if they did.

If sales taxes were included on sticker prices of all items, it would be a lot more convenient; particularly for people who are on a budget. Most of us don’t make a habit of calculating sales tax in our heads. With sales tax being included on the sticker price of an item, people would know exactly what they’re spending before they approach a cash register.

Flat taxes and national sales taxes

It’s important to note that there have been several Republican presidential candidates who have proposed either a flat tax or a national sales tax in recent years, including Herman Cain and Mike Huckabee, among others. Although this sounds like interesting idea – economically speaking – there are too many other aspects of these candidates political platforms’ for which I could never seriously entertain the idea of supporting

Out-the-door pricing

About 20 years or so back, one of the local auto service chains started providing “out the door pricing” which included taxes and any additional fees as well as parts and labor. Essentially, the shop would tell you what your grand total would be, taxes and all. While this wasn’t anything revolutionary, it was a show of good faith by the company to provide full disclosure.

Cell phone service provider T-Mobile used to factor taxes and fees into to their cell phone service plans. If you had a $59.99 monthly service plan, taxes and fees were included. Well, this plan had good intentions, it either wasn’t effective for attracting enough new customers, or T-Mobile simply was unable to keep up with it. And either case, T-Mobile now adds on taxes and additional fees in the same manner as every other wireless service provider. 

Local Sales tax shocker

Part of the problem with this idea is that sales taxes sometimes vary from county to county let alone state of state. True story: Years ago when I lived in South Carolina, I had bought something from an Office Depot (I have forgotten exactly what it was at the time). The item was either too small, the wrong type, or it was defective. I went to return it to the original store that I purchased, but they were out of stock. So I took it to another office Depot store in North Charleston, hoping that the other location would have the device in stock. They did.

However, Summerville is in Dorchester County. The North Charleston store is in Charleston County. Because Charleston County has a 7.5% sales tax whereas Dorchester County only had a 6% sales tax, I had to pay $.01 on what was otherwise an even exchange between the two stores within the same chain No, this didn’t break the bank or anything, but it was annoying, considering that I was literally exchanging one item for something of the exact same dollar amount.

Thanks for stopping by Rebuilding Rob. Be sure to like, 👍 comment and subscribe to my blog below. It’s greatly appreciated! Also, feel free to follow me on social media as well! Check out my most recent posts as well as some earlier, related (and perhaps, not-so-related) posts:

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The article “out the door pricing” first appeared on Rebuilding Rob.