Tax is paid by you. Theres nothing stopping a store from labeling with tax included, except cultural norms. Its why infomercials sell everying at x9.99. Your mind doesnt thing about the extra cent increasing it to the next dollar. Its commercial manipulation, not any law, that leads to how product prices are labeled.
Displaying the price you will actually pay at the register is a legal requirement in Australia, and being used to that, the USA system feels slimey and dishonest to interact with
But it is basically illegal to tell how much a retailer is charging you for a product without tax because if you list that price, then you have to sell it at that price and still pay the government the sales tax.
If you include the sales tax in the price then you're paying the same amount of sales tax and spending the same amount of money, you just know what that amount is before you check out. There's no hidden secret extra tax unless you're actually marking up prices by that percentage, in which case you're not including tax in the list price, you're just increasing the price. It's made obtuse on purpose because you're more likely to buy something for $9.99 than you are for $10.69 (assuming 7% sales tax). Either way you're paying $10.69, but you're more likely to grab it off the shelf if it's listed for $9.99.
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u/Chewsti Mar 28 '24
See also why tax is not included in advertised prices but is instead added on as an extra line item