It's of course economically insignificant, but this is the sort of change that can produce all sorts of unintended consequences because nobody bothers to think it all the way through. The retailers probably can't round up or they will be sued for false advertising (if I buy one thing for .98 and the total is rounded up to $1, then the .98 is arguably false). So they round down. I mean, fine, but that's a hidden tax on the retailer. Will it apply to credit card transactions too, at the retail level?
I mean, I don't know the ins and outs of retail regulations. It just seems like it could be a lot more trouble than it's worth, just like the penny.
We have computers.
Retailers who want to survive will round down to the nearest nickel.
They’ll appear to eat the 1-4 pennies of sales tax…..maybe appear to eat a dollar.
I was a regional director for a decent-sized northeastern retailer the first year that New York did a “no sales tax” event.
Initially, I thought it wasn’t going to be much of a deal. Our big sales were store-wide 20% off events - so, 7-8% off CLOTHING PRICED <$50/item didn’t seem like much.
I was SO WRONG.
Three-four days before the sales-tax-free event, I realized how big it was going to be. A customer drove in from the North Fork of Lawnguyland to Carle Place (middle of retail hell in Nassau County) and wanted to know if it was possible to return things, get a refund, rebuy them, and get everything without the sales tax. Well, the answer according to New York State was, “No.”. The practical answer was, “Yes.”
I tried to joke with the customer……”You drove 2 hours from the North Fork….one way…..….maybe 150 miles round-trip…..to save $17 in sales tax…….but, you’ll have to repeat the trip to not pay the sales tax.”
Customer: “At least the fucking government won’t get my money.”
That was a lesson.
That was a Lawnguyland Republican…..soon to become a Tea Party member and then a Trumplican.
“I’ll drive 6 hours to not pay $17 in sales tax.”
All our stores saw a dramatic increase in sales. The Lawnguyland stores saw YUGE returns and good sales.
The Manhattan stores saw almost NO returns and huge sales.
In fact, in Manhattan we did better with the state’s “no sales tax” (limited to clothing under $X amount) than we did with statewide 20% off.
Effing the government of 17-18% matters more than any savings to some.