[andrewshadura]

What the above commenter means, is that in the EU (and many countries across the world) if a price tag says €10, you pay exactly €10. In the US, if the price tag says $10, you may end up paying $12 or something random amount on top of the signed price, because it doesn't include taxes, which makes shopping extremely inconvenient compared to taxes-included price tags.

[b112]

It makes it inconvenient for travellers, I agree there.

Growing up, and living with this, I find it trivial to deal with.

[justsomehnguy]

It is still inconvenient for everyone. It like saying "Growing up, and living with the house full of lying rakes, I find it is trivial to deal with". Sure you are, but it is one thing what was solved decades ago and now nothing stops to at least having both prices on the tag.

[b112]

But why?

Literally, no one here cares. Couple this with the fact that some don't pay tax, it can make it more difficult.

(Native Canadians don't pay tax. And as a business, many items are tax exempt, if they are for resale. )

You're trying to solve something that isn't a problem. This is because it is cultural.

All haggling is done on the basis of pre-tax.

You know in Canada, we used to have built in taxes on textiles, levied at the distributor too. We got rid of it, an replaced it (and others) with a tax at the cashier.

This is because, if you buy product from out of province, or out of country, it is easier to decouple the tax.

You may not agree, but so what? We prefer it. It is how we do business.

Every time I buy something from amazon in the UK, to ship to me in Canada, I get told the wrong price, because silly VAT is built in.

So when I Google for competitive quotes, UK businesses appear to have wildly inflated pricing.

[justsomehnguy]

> This is because it is cultural.

No, it is because it is cultural you perceive the lack of the basic information about the item (the price you would pay) as a completely normal situation.

Sure, both US and Canada tax situation is a horrid mess, but at least you could know the final price if you don't have any exemptions and whatever. And if you have them you would pay less than on the full price tag. But no, both Americans and Canadians imagine some silly excuses why they can't (and hence don't want - in this order) at least to have both pre-tax and "default" tax prices on the tags.

And when I say silly - I mean it, the probably the best response I've got was "Because it would be too costly for Walmart to do so, they have too many shops - they would need too many new tags to replace". Literally. On my question how do they manage to replace their tags now (especially when there is special offers, seasonal offers, holiday offers or just a plain price changes) and how this would be a problem for a company with US$13.67 *billions of NET income* I've got just downvotes and silence.

And the most astonishing thing is what many seriously think there is no way to compute the tax beforehand to print it on the tag. On the reasonable question why then it could be computed at the till and how many times a day the tax policy change ("But they would need to change the tags so often!" - same people) I again receive the silence at best or "It is how we do things."

> amazon in the UK, to ship to me in Canada, I get told the wrong price, because silly VAT is built in.

Well yes, Amazon.co.uk is mainly for people in UK so of course they would prefer to see how much THEY would pay, not £249.00 on the tag and suddenly £281.3240 at the checkout.

I didn't buy from UK for a decade, but last time I checked you would see the VAT cost at the total, eg at apple.com/uk/shop just now: £949.00 Total Payments for your device include VAT of approx. £159.00.*

Some world-wide oriented sites just show both VAT and VAT excluded prices.

[b112]

Really, this is cultural. I don't know anyone it bugs, to just look at the tag and add the tax in their head.

I could make some quip about math skills, but I know people in the EU, etc aren't lacking. Which is why this is cultural.