3 ms·

My seven county metro area has close to 20 different sales tax rates, depending on the city and county. It’s not as easy as you think.

taeric 3y ago
It is far easier than this framing, though. They already have to worry about high variations in every other cost that goes into what they are doing. Heck, running an ad campaign will have variable costs that are also based on location of ad. Which is all to say that dealing with variable costs is part of doing business. That they are currently able to dodge responsibility for some things by attaching them after the fact as "fees" is kind of upsetting to me. Consider if you had them send out a service unit to fix a line in the neighborhood, and they decided to line item send you a fuel bill for the work. Was something they always had to deal with, but finding a way to keep an expense from cutting into profits by directly passing it to users is a touch crazy.
LiquidSky 3y ago
>It’s not as easy as you think. It is EXACTLY that easy: "$PRICE + applicable tax". It's truly bizarre to see people here hurling themselves to defend slimy, deceptive business practices and acting like in 2024 this is some utterly complex insoluble problem. And finally: too fucking bad for the businesses. Prices should be completely transparent, consumers should know precisely what they're going to be asked to pay upfront, if that creates a burden for businesses tough shit.
NikolaNovak 3y ago
I get we are all nerds here who love nothing more than to examine the unlikeliest of edge cases in great depth,and that typically makes us very good at our jobs... but this is all slipping into profound apologist territory. While there are a vast number of people from different localities laws and regulations here,for most people the issue we are trying to solve here is simple and the surcharge is not tax or regulation based. In particular, when buying vehicles dealer surcharges are one massive entry and taxes are a) already separately listed b) in great detail and c) not typically that variable. Similar with various telecom completely BS charges which are variations of "we need this money to actually be profitable" - which is fine as such,you're a business and need to be profitable,cool. But don't make me drive 50km or spend 3 hours signing up based on advertised price and then add on BS surcharges that have nothing to do with local regulation and everything to do with your business and marketing plan. that is the problem we are trying to solve,and again,arguments here seem to veer from "let us definitely let the perfect be enemy of the good and not solve anything until my favourite clever unlikely edge case is addressed" , to "shirley I have a vested interest somewhere to be protesting this much" :) P.s. and then there are Ticketmaster convenience fees and other companies service fees. I want to see somebody stand up and defend them here as a complicated problem and undue business burden and the right thing for the consumer :)

taeric 3y ago

It is far easier than this framing, though. They already have to worry about high variations in every other cost that goes into what they are doing. Heck, running an ad campaign will have variable costs that are also based on location of ad. Which is all to say that dealing with variable costs is part of doing business. That they are currently able to dodge responsibility for some things by attaching them after the fact as "fees" is kind of upsetting to me. Consider if you had them send out a service unit to fix a line in the neighborhood, and they decided to line item send you a fuel bill for the work. Was something they always had to deal with, but finding a way to keep an expense from cutting into profits by directly passing it to users is a touch crazy.

LiquidSky 3y ago

>It’s not as easy as you think. It is EXACTLY that easy: "$PRICE + applicable tax". It's truly bizarre to see people here hurling themselves to defend slimy, deceptive business practices and acting like in 2024 this is some utterly complex insoluble problem. And finally: too fucking bad for the businesses. Prices should be completely transparent, consumers should know precisely what they're going to be asked to pay upfront, if that creates a burden for businesses tough shit.

NikolaNovak 3y ago

I get we are all nerds here who love nothing more than to examine the unlikeliest of edge cases in great depth,and that typically makes us very good at our jobs... but this is all slipping into profound apologist territory. While there are a vast number of people from different localities laws and regulations here,for most people the issue we are trying to solve here is simple and the surcharge is not tax or regulation based. In particular, when buying vehicles dealer surcharges are one massive entry and taxes are a) already separately listed b) in great detail and c) not typically that variable. Similar with various telecom completely BS charges which are variations of "we need this money to actually be profitable" - which is fine as such,you're a business and need to be profitable,cool. But don't make me drive 50km or spend 3 hours signing up based on advertised price and then add on BS surcharges that have nothing to do with local regulation and everything to do with your business and marketing plan. that is the problem we are trying to solve,and again,arguments here seem to veer from "let us definitely let the perfect be enemy of the good and not solve anything until my favourite clever unlikely edge case is addressed" , to "shirley I have a vested interest somewhere to be protesting this much" :) P.s. and then there are Ticketmaster convenience fees and other companies service fees. I want to see somebody stand up and defend them here as a complicated problem and undue business burden and the right thing for the consumer :)