womblecat

HST not included in the price of things - will I ever get used to this?? Its currently driving me nuts that the price on the label is not the price I will pay, why cant it be inclusive?!!!!

Oh and why in Nova Scotia do they not put their lights on when driving in torrential rain and fog in the day? They have their running lights on so you can see the front of the car but not the back. How difficult does it have to be to turn your lights on?? The local radio station is advertising a reflective sticker so that you can be seen in these driving conditions, whats wrong with turning on the lights???!!!

I think I am having an off day!

iaink

Yes you will get used to it, five, ten years should do it...

They tried it. everyone whined that they wanted to know exactly how much the government(s) were taking and that hiding it in the sticker price was a way to sneak taxes upon them. Besides, makes tipping in restaurants easier... tip = tax.

DRLs mean people dont have to think, did you not get the memo?

Greenhill

To do that would mean spilling their coffee or dropping their cell phone.

Every now and again you'll see someone driving in a manner where you know they're going to do some sort of manoeuvre but you need telepathy or a jedi mind trick to attain a general notion of their intentions. The experience that springs to mind for me was the woman swerving around the road (heading towards me) while I was waiting to make a left turn onto a highway exit/entrance. She finally past the highway entrance at about 5 km/h and pulled off the road, where she finished off brushing her teeth with her electric tooth brush while staring in the vanity mirror.

You'll get used to it

wizzard

Having the advertised price be sales tax inclusive is also easier if every jurisdiction in the country has the same sales tax, but they don't. So at least this way you can compare the retail price of an item across the country at the price the retailer has set and know if, for example a TV or car is cheaper in a store in one than another. I would imagine including it in the sticker would just be a reminder to people in the jurisdictions with higher sales taxes that their governments steal more of their money than others.
Also, excepting harmonized sales tax jurisdiction (although even they have exemption rebates) there is more than one level of government taxing you so it is clearer when you can see if one item is being taxed by just the Federal Government, or just provincial or territorial or both etc.

It is still more complicated, I always used to see like a soda for a dollar and think ah I have a loonie ill buy a soda then the cash guy wants $1.13 or whatever the taxes are and you have to fish for change. Eventually you just get used to it, I don't even think of the taxes anymore and just compare retails. Unless you are on a strict budget it is all relative anyway, the cheaper item is still cheaper plus tax.

lmartin999

I don't think governments steal money, though I might prefer a higher level of direct taxation. Would anyone really compare the price in one province to another - and even if they do - is it possible or worth doing anything about it? Does anyone care whether tax is provincial or federal? What's more complicated??

Steve_

Never understand why people complain about the tax not being included in the price, it always used to really annoy me in the UK that it was included because I wanted to know how much tax was being charged. On various occasions I figured out that the amount of VAT being charged was incorrect, doesn't happen so often here because it's added on afterward.

Makes it easier to compare prices with the US and elsewhere in Canada as well.

dbd33

I think the reverse is true. If it's $19.99, all in, in Ontario and $21.99 in Nunavut, it's cheaper in Ontario. If it's $12+tax in both places then tables have to be consulted, research done, before finding out where it's cheaper. What use it is to know how much a bandage would be in were one bleeding in Nunavut when one is bleeding in Ontario is another matter. Generally what matters to me is how much the thing I need costs where I need it.

I like the tax included method.

el_richo

+1

Especially when i'm stood at the checkout behind a person lacking the ability to add %'s so i have to wait while they get the final price before digging into their coinage to count the correct change.

Tax not included is a stupid ****ing system

Steve_

It's called "mail order".

It's not like in the EU where you pay the VAT in the collecting country, here they charge you the tax in your province, so you need to know the price without tax, not the price with their local tax added, which is meaningless.

Unless of course you go to Nunavut in person to collect your bandages.

Besides just the basic principle of the thing, I am paying X, plus tax. I want to know what the govt. take is. Makes the taxes more transparent.

Steve_

The difference here is there is more of a variation between jurisdictions, HST in BC is 12%, GST is 5% in Alberta, Saskatchewan has a PST, in Montana there is no sales tax, Idaho is 6%, Washington is 7% (iirc).

I'm actually likely to go there in person and buy things there and tax makes a difference in the price, if the tax wasn't so clearly stated I wouldn't know if it was a reasonable price or not.

There isn't such a big variation in VAT rates between the UK and France and Belgium say. They're all around 20%, go from BC to Montana it's 12% to zero.

Plus there is a much wider variation in what taxes are applied to, in the US, grocery items rarely have tax applied, but in Canada anything prepared has GST at least.

To cut a long story short, knowing what tax is being applied is more important. Better to have more information than less, imo.

iaink

Its six of one, hald a dozen of the other. As brits we are used to tax included in the sticker price. I dont know that one is better than the other, it just is what it is. You get used to it.

As I said, they tried to integrate it once (so my OH tells me), and it didnt fly, so they went back to way it is now.

el_richo

As i said, stupid ****ing system

Tax applied is irrelevant imo. Total price is, which enables me to decide whether it's reasonable for me or not.

For example, which is the most reasonably priced dining table below? -

Dining Table in Montana - $1100CAD
Dining Table in BC - $1000CAD + Tax

dbd33

Is it mail order?

el_richo

It can be but Steve_ prefers to pick things up in person

Alan2005

I prefer the tax to be excluded. I think it's good for people to know explicitly how much the state is raping them when they buy the stuff they want. If it was excluded in the UK I doubt VAT would be at 20%.