Question about over the counter sales tax

[Flying Spaghetti Monster]

Okay:
The local convenience store has some deals. as a writer I'm always looking for a sugar rush as the night goes on.
a can of Red Bull is $2.19 but there's a 2/$4.00 deal.
a bottle of Coke is $1.19 but there is a 2/$2.00 deal

I also bought a small bag of chips.

here's my receipt:
Red Bull 8.3oz............. $2.19
Red Bull 8.3oz............. $2.19
16z coke.....................$1.19
16z coke.....................$1.19
Lays 1.87z Ruff SC Ch..$1.09
Store Coupon.......$-0.19
Store Coupon.......$-0.19
Store Coupon.......$-0.19
Store Coupon.......$-0.19
------------
Subtotal - $7.85
Tax - $0.42
Transaction Discounts- $-.76
-------------
Total $7.51

Do you see what I see. They re charging me tax on the presale price- on amounts I haven't actually paid - rather than a percentage of what I actually did pay. But it's kinda sneaky because, to an untrained eye, it looks coshure, because the discounts are listed on the receipt above the subtotal. But that's not what I taxes on. I'm paying taxes not on what I should pay, but what I would have paid.

What's their justification for doing this?

 

[Balrog]

I'm just guessing here, but you are most likely being charged on the items' worth vs. What you actually paid for the item because of a coupon.

Death and taxes. C'est la vie.

 

[Flying Spaghetti Monster]

I'm just guessing here, but you are most likely being charged on the items' worth vs. What you actually paid for the item because of a coupon.

Death and taxes. C'est la vie.

I agree, but it's not right.

I should only be charged for what I pay, not some phantom amount I'm not paying.

If you have a chair for $100 and I buy it on sale for $75, I shouldn't be charged for tax on the original price.

 

[ByrdMan]

From what I understand, (after googling a bit) it can vary from State to State regarding weather or not you pay tax pre discount or not.

I also ran across some items saying that there is a difference between store coupons and manufacturer coupons; where store coupons reduce the price of the item, reducing the tax, while manufacturer coupons are a form of tender, therefore not reducing the cost of the item for the retailer and consequently not reducing the tax.

Since yours were store coupons and you still payed tax on the total amount, I assume you're in one of those states that charges tax pre-discount.

 

[M'Sharak]

I'm just guessing here, but you are most likely being charged on the items' worth vs. What you actually paid for the item because of a coupon.

Death and taxes. C'est la vie.

I agree, but it's not right.

Of course it's right.

The tax is calculated based on the purchase price of the product, as per the law. The discount (coupon value) is then applied to (subtracted from) the total you would have paid anyway had you tendered no coupon.

That's the way the transaction works, and the way such transactions have always worked.

...it looks coshure...

I think the word you were looking for there is "kosher".

 

[Flying Spaghetti Monster]

I live in PA.

Anyway, I always thought that tax was calculated on the percentage that someone pays, not what someone could pay. Otherwise taxes would be ridiculous.

 

[Balrog]

I'm just guessing here, but you are most likely being charged on the items' worth vs. What you actually paid for the item because of a coupon.

Death and taxes. C'est la vie.

I agree, but it's not right.

I should only be charged for what I pay, not some phantom amount I'm not paying.

If you have a chair for $100 and I buy it on sale for $75, I shouldn't be charged for tax on the original price.

This might vary from state to state, but items on sale and items bought with coupons are typically taxed differently.

 

[Yoda]

Do I see what you see? Not really.

Let me get this right... pre-tax total without discount is 7.85... you got 76 cents worth of discount, making your pre-tax total 7.09. You were charged 42 cents in tax. According to wikipedia PA has a sales tax rate of 6 percent, though it looks kind of complicated as to what is and is not exempt, and various counties have additional sales tax on top of the state tax.

So anyway... 6 percent of pre-discount 7.85 is 47.1 cents... 6 percent of the 7.09 post-discount price is 42.54 cents. Aside from some goofy rounding (why not 43 cents, always round down?) isn't that basically the tax rate you were expecting?

What M'Sharak said about always being taxed on pre-discount prices doesn't make much sense to me, but I can't say I ever paid close enough attention to such a receipt to say it's not case.

 

[iguana_tonante]

...it looks coshure...

I think the word you were looking for there is "kosher".

Lulz.

 

[Flying Spaghetti Monster]

It's not the money. It's less then 50 cents regardless.. but pennies add up. People should not be paying taxes on amounts they are not paying, regardless of what it is.

 

[Gov Kodos]

It's not the money. It's less then 50 cents regardless.. but pennies add up. People should not be paying taxes on amounts they are not paying, regardless of what it is.

You're paying taxes on the value of the goods that the store purchased for sale. The coupons you bring in are a discount after the item is taxed. You are expecting to pay lower taxes for the same goods as someone without a coupon. There is no fairness in that.

 

[Flying Spaghetti Monster]

It's not the money. It's less then 50 cents regardless.. but pennies add up. People should not be paying taxes on amounts they are not paying, regardless of what it is.

You're paying taxes on the value of the goods that the store purchased for sale. The coupons you bring in are irrelevant. You are expecting to pay lower taxes for the same goods as someone without a coupon. There is no fairness in that.

No
First of all there were no coupons. The deal was for buying two products and was posted in the store.

Secondly, in my view taxes are a percentage of the amount I actually pay, not some other amount.

 

[cooleddie74]

The sales tax on non-food items in the state of Virginia is currently 5%. I buy, say, a bottle of ibuprofen for $3.99 and when I get to the cash register I give them a manufacturer's coupon for a dollar off the bottle of ibuprofen.

I'm still charged twenty cents sales tax on the ibuprofen whether I fork over the coupon or not, bringing the total of my purchase before the coupon's barcode is scanned to $4.19. Then the coupon is scanned, a dollar comes off, and my grand total for my purchase is $3.19.

Seems pretty simple to me. That's just the way things work and, naturally, it all varies from state to state based on the sales, food and other taxes that that particular jurisdiction imposes within its borders.

Like Lloyd Dobler so succinctly put it. Death and taxes, baby. Nothing you can really do short of supporting and electing state politicians who pledge to cut your state's sales and/or other taxes.

 

[Amaris]

It's not the money. It's less then 50 cents regardless.. but pennies add up. People should not be paying taxes on amounts they are not paying, regardless of what it is.

You're paying taxes on the value of the goods that the store purchased for sale. The coupons you bring in are irrelevant. You are expecting to pay lower taxes for the same goods as someone without a coupon. There is no fairness in that.

No
First of all there were no coupons. The deal was for buying two products and was posted in the store.

Secondly, in my view taxes are a percentage of the amount I actually pay, not some other amount.

Know how to solve this? Stop buying taxable food items like soda. Your heart will thank you some day.

Either that, or quit stressing over a few pennies. Your heart will also thank you some day.

 

[Gov Kodos]

It's not the money. It's less then 50 cents regardless.. but pennies add up. People should not be paying taxes on amounts they are not paying, regardless of what it is.

You're paying taxes on the value of the goods that the store purchased for sale. The coupons you bring in are irrelevant. You are expecting to pay lower taxes for the same goods as someone without a coupon. There is no fairness in that.

No
First of all there were no coupons. The deal was for buying two products and was posted in the store.

Secondly, in my view taxes are a percentage of the amount I actually pay, not some other amount.

The value of the goods hasn't changed, the Red Bull, for instance are still $2.19 a piece. The 2-for sale is done with an in-store coupon/discount that is applied at the time of sale as shown on the receipt you wrote up. The store isn't going to eat the taxes on the full price of the Red Bull, which is still 2.19 a bottle.

 

[Flying Spaghetti Monster]

You're paying taxes on the value of the goods that the store purchased for sale. The coupons you bring in are irrelevant. You are expecting to pay lower taxes for the same goods as someone without a coupon. There is no fairness in that.

No
First of all there were no coupons. The deal was for buying two products and was posted in the store.

Secondly, in my view taxes are a percentage of the amount I actually pay, not some other amount.

Know how to solve this? Stop buying taxable food items like soda. Your heart will thank you some day.

Either that, or quit stressing over a few pennies. Your heart will also thank you some day.

I could care less about the actual pennies. I was arguing about the principle. Maybe what cooleddie and Lloyd Dabler were saying was correct, but I see no justification for it even if they are. It's wrong to be charged a percentage of what you don't pay.

And if it is wrong for their register to be charging on the presale tax then they are scamming people and keeping the money.

 

[Amaris]

No
First of all there were no coupons. The deal was for buying two products and was posted in the store.

Secondly, in my view taxes are a percentage of the amount I actually pay, not some other amount.

Know how to solve this? Stop buying taxable food items like soda. Your heart will thank you some day.

Either that, or quit stressing over a few pennies. Your heart will also thank you some day.

I could care less about the actual pennies. I was arguing about the principle. Maybe what cooleddie and Lloyd Dabler were saying was correct, but I see no justification for it even if they are. It's wrong to be charged a percentage of what you don't pay.

The question is why are you complaining? You're getting a discount on what you're purchasing. A discount that is totally voluntary on the part of the retailer. You're saving money on the face of the item. The tax doesn't change because the item has not been devalued, merely discounted.

 

[Flying Spaghetti Monster]

My complaint is that taxes are requirements on percetnages of the amount paid by the customer regardless of what that amount is. I'm not paying $2.19 for a can. I'm actually paying less and that principle is what I should be charged for, regardless of the justifications the other way.

 

[cooleddie74]

Whenever I buy two containers of detergent that are on sale for, say, $3.00 each but the pre-sale price of each was $4.00 then I'm still going to pay sales tax on that eight dollars. Forty cents. That's going to be firm even if I have a $3.00 manufacturer's coupon and wind up getting both containers of detergent for just $3.40 when my transaction is completed.

Like Kodos said, the store isn't just going to eat the taxes on two $4.00 containers. They're going to get their tax change off of me regardless of how big a manufacturer's coupon I hand them to get the detergent for as dirt cheap as possible. But in the end, I'm still getting two four dollar containers for just $3.40 after my coupon is scanned and the discount is taken off. It's mighty damn hard for me to complain and ask to speak to the store manager when I'm saving five whole dollars. That's a 60% discount. After a 60% discount I'm not going to argue over a tiny, practically insignificant handful of pennies.

Pennies I couldn't do a damn thing about anyways.

 

[Yoda]

So uhh... was my math wrong? Because it seems to me like he's complaining about extra tax that he didn't even pay.

Also, a 'store' coupon and a 'manufacturer' coupon are not the same thing. That is a 'store' coupon is essentially just a reduction in price whereas 'manufacturer' coupon subsidizes a purchase. Maybe it's different state by state, but it makes no sense for the former to be taxed at the non-discount price.