6 ms·

If you're talking about sales taxes, they can't until you input your shipping address. Because they depend on where you live. Nobody's trying to fool you by no

• Symbiote 2y ago
  In the EU, the site guesses the location based on the IP, writes "Delivery to Denmark [Change?]" and shows prices with Danish VAT. If I'm signed in to the shop from making a previous purchase, they will use the location of the previous purchase.
  • qeternity 2y ago
    Yes bc in the EU there is national VAT. In the US there is state and local sales tax. You can and will pay different sales tax between cities in a given state.
    • emidln 2y ago
      You can do this, albeit slightly less reliably, in the US as well. The geolocation isn't perfect, but you could easily put "With delivery to XXXXX [edit]" where XXXXX is a zip code you geolocate off an ip (or lookup in a user profile for a recurring user).
      • kstrauser 2y ago
        The zip code is not fine grained enough to identify tax jurisdictions in many places in the US.
  • ssl-3 2y ago
    If Denmark has just one sales tax rate or VAT, then maybe that can work OK for Denmark. But this isn't about Denmark -- it is about the US. In the US, there are over 13,000 different sales tax jurisdictions, and each one of them may have a different tax rate. I wish the best to anyone who would ever be tasked with sorting that out with any semblance of accuracy using IP geolocation databases.
    • _zoltan_ 2y ago
      Maybe not have 13000 different sales tax jurisdictions? Just a thought...
      • ssl-3 2y ago
        It doesn't really work like that, though. Sales tax is up to the states to sort out how to deal with on their own, and there's 50 of them. Nationally (or as some may prefer, "federallly"), the sales tax rate is already zero -- and has always been zero.
        • flutas 2y ago
          > Sales tax is up to the states to sort out how to deal with on their own, and there's 50 of them. To add on for any else trying to figure out the 13k number from this statement. Counties can also apply their own additional taxes. Cities can also apply their own additional taxes. On top of just that, the cities and counties can set different taxes in the same area, such as a sugar tax or an alcohol tax or even a pre-prepared food tax vs groceries. It gets complicated fast.
          • _zoltan_ 2y ago
            it can get really easy: just don't let this madness sprawl out of control? :) per state, I understand the tax. set it per state, and be done with it. maybe split it in some % with the city (I don't know if cities directly get a portion of it already or not?), so it's a win-win.
            • ssl-3 2y ago
              Maybe that works. I have concerns about IP geolocation databases being able to pin me down to a particular state, but maybe. But even assuming "good enough" IP geolocation exists: In order for this to be implemented both uniformly and nationally, we'd need a new constitutional amendment that would grant the federal government the ability to regulate how sales taxes work within states. Because right now, we have this: "The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people."
  • weberer 2y ago
    A lot of sites, for example Amazon, don't update VAT until checkout, even if you set "Ship to [country]" when searching. Then the price suddenly jumps.
• websap 2y ago
  Yes, because my IP address doesn't give them a way to calculate tentative taxes? My IP can be used to serve me ads, but not serve me actually relevant information? There's a very small % of traffic that actually uses VPNs
  • crazygringo 2y ago
    Correct, it doesn't. IP geolocation is nowhere near precise enough. Remember, sales tax isn't something big like state-level. It's literally town-level, including tiny towns. Two sides of the same street can have a different sales tax. Not to mention all the extra rules, such as individual clothing items under $110 being exempt in New York.
    • websap 2y ago
      I will take the blurb which says taxes are an approximate calculation based on web browsing data available, vs, no taxes shown. We're gate keeping good features for large % of users over some edge cases.
      • crazygringo 2y ago
        Gate keeping what? You know where you live, you know what your local sales tax is. The current system works fine.
        • lxgr 2y ago
          It works ok-ish. It works significantly better in almost every other country in the world. Yay for status quo bias! > You know where you live, you know what your local sales tax is. No, I in fact don't know, because I have better things to do than to keep up with what my city and state have extended sales tax to this month, what carveouts exist ("no sales tax on unhealthy snacks except ice cream" and stuff like that) etc. And there is absolutely no excuse for in-person stores that do, in fact, have perfect a priori knowledge of all of this.
      • Alupis 2y ago
• trustinmenowpls 2y ago
  Yup, I know what sales tax is in my state and can do the math in my head pretty easily to get the approx. amount. If you live in a state for any length of time you should be able to do this too. even if its something odd like 7.25% you can figure out what 10% is really quickly and know it'll be a little less than that.
  • ghaff 2y ago
    I'm not sure who these presumably tech-adjacent folks are who can't look at a posted price, know something about the tax/tipping/etc. conventions are, and know about what the final bill will be. That said, I DO agree that hidden facility/resort/etc. fees and the like should go. For years, there was a conference center restoration fee tacked onto hotels all over NYC even the project wasn't even approved. Rental cars at airports are also a nightmare. There is no reason for them.
• diehunde 2y ago
  Right, but even when they do have your zipcode (because you added beforehand for checking stock for example) they don't update the prices. It would be nice to have the option
• rconti 2y ago
  Every local store I walk into is trying to fool me by not including sales taxes, why would online stores be any different?
• drdaeman 2y ago
  GP mentioned "sticker price", so I suspect they possibly meant physical goods or services. If you're in a retail store, there are no real obstacles (except for business unwillingness to be honest to the customer) to calculate and disclose the final price. A store knows where it's located, and that's where the sale happens.
• mr_toad 2y ago
  Why do US states allow counties and cities to raise so many taxes? Usually (across the world and across history) the power of taxation is very jealously guarded, and local government is usually only allowed to gather a limited range of taxes. Historically sovereigns have treated attempts by subordinates to raise their own taxes as tantamount to treason.
  • crazygringo 2y ago
    ...why shouldn't they? You haven't given any reason why not. And sales tax is one of a limited range of taxes.