[cryptnoob]

You don't have a sales tax, in that the consumer is not taxed. Instead, you have an excise tax, where the business is taxed. Many businesses will show how much they inflated their prices in order to pay their excise tax, and show this as a line item on the receipt. That's their choice. That doesn't make it a sales tax.

Again, Hawaii is taxing it's own people, instead of it's tourists. In self-defense, many of those businesses pass that tax on to the tourists and itemize it on their receipts, but many don't.

[barry-cotter]

The effectice payee of a tax has nothing to do with who officially pays it and everything to do with who wants it, or wants shot of it, more badly.

The impact of this excise tax is exactly the same as a sales tax.