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Regarding VAT in Europe and similar systems in Canada and Mexico where it’s included in the listed price: in all such countries which I’ve personally experience

Regarding VAT in Europe and similar systems in Canada and Mexico where it’s included in the listed price: in all such countries which I’ve personally experienced, the receipts still generally include a breakdown of which tax applies to which item, including correctly distinguishing when different taxes or tax rates apply to different items, and often a total of each tax or all taxes per receipt. You do get to care about those if you want to merely by looking at the details on your receipt, or not if you don’t, but the sticker price is the final price either way. (Tangent: the above is discussing consumer-targeted prices only. Business-targeted prices often don’t include VAT in the advertised price, even in the EU, because most EU business can get a credit for VAT paid on inputs to a product or service in which they themselves charge VAT. Of course, receipts and invoices still break down all the details of which VAT rate is charged for which item, and sometimes why.) The situation for disclosure of multiple overlapping sales taxes in the US (as is usually the case in NYC for example) is much less detailed, sadly, but even there it’s still usually clear which items are taxed or tax-free.

extraduder_ire 3y ago
I didn't know Canada/Mexico mandated showing the total price, I thought Canada at least was in the same boat as the US. Very much a fan of the EU's Consumer Rights Directive, especially where it pertains to advertised prices. Even if some things have now skirted it, like sugar-tax and pfand in certain countries. In my country at least, any business with a VAT number buys most things VAT-free and the end consumer is charged the whole amount, for the sake of doing less paperwork. Don't know how exactly it works when something is transformed into a lower-VAT output.
- doubled112 3y ago
  If we did, I didn't know. All of the price tags in Canada (or Ontario at least) are pre-tax.
  - jkaplowitz 3y ago
    Yeah I was wrong about that detail.
- jkaplowitz 3y ago
  Good point. Despite having spent years living in Canada myself and acquiring a Canadian passport, I somehow fooled myself. Prices in Canada are usually advertised as before sales tax. Still, the rest of what I said was accurate - in places like Quebec where two overlapping sales taxes are usually applicable, the receipt does usually detail which taxes apply to which items and at what rates, which is what the ISPs seem to be objecting to for the various governmentally imposed taxes and fees they’re passing through to customers. Mexico, like Europe, does include the VAT in prices advertised to consumers. That part of my comment was accurate. As for Pfand (bottle deposit), that’s an interesting case. At least in Germany, they usually have to advertise the Pfand amount and list it individually on the receipt. But also, it’s similar to the situation businesses have with VAT: both for cultural reasons and due to the sums of money involved, it’s quite common for Germans to actually bother with returning bottles for the Pfand, so the extra cost effectively gets rebated for most purchases subject to Pfand. The whole system and the underlying psychological incentives would not work as well if the Pfand cost were more hidden than it is.

extraduder_ire 3y ago

I didn't know Canada/Mexico mandated showing the total price, I thought Canada at least was in the same boat as the US. Very much a fan of the EU's Consumer Rights Directive, especially where it pertains to advertised prices. Even if some things have now skirted it, like sugar-tax and pfand in certain countries. In my country at least, any business with a VAT number buys most things VAT-free and the end consumer is charged the whole amount, for the sake of doing less paperwork. Don't know how exactly it works when something is transformed into a lower-VAT output.

doubled112 3y ago
If we did, I didn't know. All of the price tags in Canada (or Ontario at least) are pre-tax.
- jkaplowitz 3y ago
  Yeah I was wrong about that detail.
jkaplowitz 3y ago
Good point. Despite having spent years living in Canada myself and acquiring a Canadian passport, I somehow fooled myself. Prices in Canada are usually advertised as before sales tax. Still, the rest of what I said was accurate - in places like Quebec where two overlapping sales taxes are usually applicable, the receipt does usually detail which taxes apply to which items and at what rates, which is what the ISPs seem to be objecting to for the various governmentally imposed taxes and fees they’re passing through to customers. Mexico, like Europe, does include the VAT in prices advertised to consumers. That part of my comment was accurate. As for Pfand (bottle deposit), that’s an interesting case. At least in Germany, they usually have to advertise the Pfand amount and list it individually on the receipt. But also, it’s similar to the situation businesses have with VAT: both for cultural reasons and due to the sums of money involved, it’s quite common for Germans to actually bother with returning bottles for the Pfand, so the extra cost effectively gets rebated for most purchases subject to Pfand. The whole system and the underlying psychological incentives would not work as well if the Pfand cost were more hidden than it is.