It's seventy eight cents!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Mike Taylor]

I get that from the Tourists from Florida.

FL Tourist: Oh! You have sales tax on food! I didn't know that! We don't have sales tax on food in Florida!
RW: Welcome to North Carolina. At least you're not in my homestate.
FLT: And where would that be?
RW: Tennessee. Sales tax on food and merchandise is 8.5% and 9.5% receptively (last time I checked).
FLT: How can you stand that?!
RW: No income tax and I don't care either way.

We don't have a state income tax down here, either. FL property taxes, however, are ridiculous.

[Buglady]

That wasnt humor, that was bullying,

Yup. Emotional blackmail is another name for this type of behaviour - it's a kind of passive aggression where the person (usually quite deliberately) tries to force you into doing things their way by using implied or outright guilt (you will make them feel bad) combined with trying to shame you (if you don't do what they want, you are a bad person, no sense of humour, etc).

I have NO PATIENCE WHATSOEVER for it. Playing stupid works really well to disarm them, though.

[smileyeagle1021]

I come from one of the states that is really convulute when it comes to taxes... food stuffs are 1.8% and everything else is like 6.8% (i think, don't remember the exact numbers)... except text books which are tax free... yup, I have to pay tax on food but not on text books. I don't know how Utah determines food, but I really liked how Nevada defined food, and that is "anything that has a primary purpose of being eaten and must be prepared by the purchaser". The beuatiful thing was that opening a box or unscrewing a cap counted as preparing so there wasn't tax on candy or soda

[Mark Healey]

WAM: Aw but we don't have sales tax in Portland! Your friend there said we wouldn't have to pay the sales tax! Har har har!

I said no such thing. He is a total liar.

[Can I Help Your A$$?]

Wait. In WA we don't charge people from Oregon or Alaska sales tax. They're exempt. Am I missing something?

The reason they don't have sales tax is because they pay state income tax.

[karma_gypsy]

I sincerely apologize for the behavior of my fellow Oregonians. There's no excuse for that type of behavior, and rest assured, not all of us are like that.

I second that!!

[Aethian]

Merchandise is 6% tax and food is no tax but if you get food at a restaurant you have the 6% here in Michigan.

[Mara-chan]

Yeah, tax in Florida can be confusing.

First, each county can add onto the minimun 6% tax. So counties like mine are 7%, while 8 miles north it's 6.5%. Harder to do the math. I liked when it was 4%. SO much easier to do in your head. ^_^

Now FOOD is even weirder.

If food is prepared for you (ie Restaraunt, food court, etc), it's taxed.

If it's something you'll prepare yourself, it's tax-free. Like raw meat and veggies.

Soda and candy is taxed. Water isn't. Juices are tax free. "drink", "-ade", and "Beverage" labed drinks are taxible.

Buy an ice cream cone? Taxed. Buy a gallon of ice cream and some cones? Tax free.

Chocolate bar? Taxed. Chocolate chips for baking? Tax free.

Buy some ham? Tax free. Have them make you a sandwich? Taxed.


Of my $112 grocery bill today, I paid $0.87 in tax on frozen lemonade, seltzer and TP.

http://dor.myflorida.com/dor/tips/tip98a108.html
(that's the official site)

[Sonoma]

Wait. In WA we don't charge people from Oregon or Alaska sales tax. They're exempt. Am I missing something?

Last time I made a large purchase in Washington, they waived the sales tax, but I had to fill out the form & show my driver's license. It's been a few years, but when I bought my truck, or bought a $50 figurine, I was able to get the tax waived. Our last trip into Washington I didn't make any large purchases, so I just happily paid the tax. If I were to buy something expensive on my next trip up, I'll ask if they still do that. If so, great. If not, that's fine.

[Peppergirl]

We don't have a state income tax down here, either. FL property taxes, however, are ridiculous.

That was one of the ONLY things I enjoyed when I lived in FL.

[Mark Healey]

I sincerely apologize for the behavior of my fellow Oregonians. There's no excuse for that type of behavior, and rest assured, not all of us are like that.

I definitely agree I didn't mean to sound like ALL Oregonians were tax-dodgers. Most just comment on it and are actually in general very nice people. Maybe I should move there...


P.S. This is Mnemjian....I am using Mark's account at work and I forgot that...so, yeah. I can't figure out how to delete a post either. My bad ;p

[Jay 2K Winger]

Closest thing to this kind of suck I get are the diplomats demanding their alcohol be rung up tax-free (not in this state, buddy) or the following:

Customer: (looking at receipt) Why am I being charged twice for tax?
J2K: You're not. One tax listing is for food items, the other's for non-food.
Customer: How do I know which is which?
J2K: Honestly, I forget which one is which, but you see those 'A's next to some of the items on your receipt?
Customer: Yeah?
J2K: Those were charged the food tax.
Customer: And the 'N's?
J2K: No tax on those items.

Basically, for whatever reason, the wholesale club doesn't just print one tax listing after the sub-total, it lists two, leading to the above confusion. And some items like medicine (Advil, Tylenol, etc.) aren't charged tax. A few years ago, the food and non-food tax rates were the same (4.5%), but since then the non-food sales tax got bumped up to 5% and the food tax got bumped down to 4%.

I think, at least. It's hard for me to care too much, and I can never keep it straight.

[Chromatix]

Yep. Similar situation with European VAT - essential food things (and some other categories) get charged at a lower or zero rate, so you get multiple VAT sums on some receipts (those which bother to separate the tax out).

[cinema guy]

In the UK there is no VAT on food, children's clothes, books, magazines and newspapers. There is a 5% rate on gas and electricity as well as a few other things like car seats for children and equipment for disabled people. Everything else is (currently) 15%.

But everything has VAT included at point of sale, so we don't usually notice it. Except recently when the government reduced it from 17.5% to help stimulate the economy, and some shops hadn't had chance to change price labels, so stuff was actually cheaper when we got to the checkout.

[LadyAndreca]

I seem to remember in high school in Alabama that the sales tax could change not only from county to county, but city to city...that's when my parents taught me to budget 10% for tax when figuring a total, a rule I still use.

Granted, I can calculate sales tax in my head to the penny if I have to, but usually I'm buying too much stuff to make it easy or worth it. 10% keeps me from overspending.