Yes, but people's behavior is different if the price is included or not. This is true for all taxes. People's decision to purchase is based on the list price, n

Yes, but people's behavior is different if the price is included or not. This is true for all taxes. People's decision to purchase is based on the list price, not the total price, so if it is GST inclusive, buying drops even though the total cost is the same. For an example I'm familiar with in my family, consider: You're paid $100,000 but your bank account only sees $60k, the rest is taxes but taken off by your employer. vs You're paid $100,000 and your bank account sees all $100k. At tax time, you need to write a check to the government for $40k. People get a lot more angry about writing the $40k check. It was _theirs_ in a way that the payroll taxes aren't. I've seen this personally when someone moves from employee to self-employed. The same applies with sales taxes. Most people don't look at the receipt, or if they do it's only to check that the amount taken matches the label. Do people get angry at gas taxes, or the oil companies? Taxes per l of fuel is 44.2c + 10% GST in 221.4c/l. Taxes are ~30% of the price? https://www.mynrma.com.au/cars-and-driving/fuel-resources/weekly-report#:~:text=The%20average%20price%20for%20regular,is%20221.4%20cents%20per%20litre https://www.mynrma.com.au/cars-and-driving/fuel-resources/we.... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fuel_taxes_in_Australia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fuel_taxes_in_Australia