There's a lot of players involved. IMO for regular people it's simple/cheap, but for companies/employers it's complex/expensive Federal government charges taxe

There's a lot of players involved. IMO for regular people it's simple/cheap, but for companies/employers it's complex/expensive Federal government charges taxes on income, production, import/export and over bank operations; states charge consumption and vehicle taxes; cities charge service and property taxes. Then there's also contributions that employers pay for workers, and some that workers pay. However, consumption tax can compound itself (because of sales between distributors, or taxes over raw materials), so there's a "substitution" formula which can get pretty weird (but companies take care of it).