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[USA] How can sales tax brackets affect purchasing behavior when prices are pre-tax?
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this post was submitted on 22 Sep 2024
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Good argument for the price inclusive of tax to be the price shown.
I think it’s fairly uncommon for sales taxes in the US to be intended to incentivize behavior - moreso, they are for funding local government and higher taxes are placed on things that are politically palatable in local elections - hotel rooms or restaurant/alcohol sales come to mind.
So I just don’t think we’re well practiced at mechanisms that make them work as a point-of-sale incentive, and changing the way a single class of items are priced would be complicated and surely receive pushback from retailers and the industry involved.
My belief that it's intended to incentivize behavior is from talks about things like the "soda tax," where some goods are taxed at a different rate to try to reduce consumption
I don't understand how they can be effective when you don't see the price on the sticker, though
Yeah, I agree the tax needs to be visible in the price to be effective
Things intended to incentivize healthier behavior are generally referred to as vice taxes, and yeah, we don’t do well at those.
We have vice tax to discourage smoking, drinking alcohol and probably a few other things but they’re completely ineffective. They really need to be a lot higher and to be more well known. For example, I have no idea what the alcohol tax in my locale is so it does not affect my behavior. Actually, the neighboring state advertises no alcohol tax so the only affect might be taking a road trip to stock up on alcohol. I do support the idea of raising that until it hurts to choose alcohol, except that it would hurt most those who can afford it least.
I like the idea of vice taxes in general, as a way to leverage the power of capitalism to improve public health. I dont know if they really work though, just that we haven’t gone far enough to see if it would work