Comments on: Offtopic Friday: time to re-think state sales taxes? http://www.michaeldolan.com/1434 Linux, Law, Open Source, and a Comedy of Errors Mon, 21 Jun 2010 13:57:38 -0700 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0 By: European guy http://www.michaeldolan.com/1434/comment-page-1#comment-41631 European guy Sat, 18 Jul 2009 18:25:21 +0000 http://www.michaeldolan.com/?p=1434#comment-41631 I don't get why there is a state and federal tax in the US and Canada either. I don't know about all the countries in Europe, as they are all very different beasts anyway, but e.g. in Germany, there is just one federal sales tax (ok untrue, because tax on food is only 7% instead of the current 19% sales tax). All prices advertised include the tax already, so you know exactly what to pay, instead of having to add federal and state taxes yourself, which especially when you travel is a PITA. Also, why can cities tax income? I didn't know that was possible in the US. Never heard of that here in Canada. Having to do your tax report twice (once for Canada and once for Quebec in my case) is also a PITA. I don't care who gets which percentage of my income tax, just distribute that behind the scenes and let me do my taxes _once_. I don’t get why there is a state and federal tax in the US and Canada either. I don’t know about all the countries in Europe, as they are all very different beasts anyway, but e.g. in Germany, there is just one federal sales tax (ok untrue, because tax on food is only 7% instead of the current 19% sales tax).

All prices advertised include the tax already, so you know exactly what to pay, instead of having to add federal and state taxes yourself, which especially when you travel is a PITA.

Also, why can cities tax income? I didn’t know that was possible in the US. Never heard of that here in Canada. Having to do your tax report twice (once for Canada and once for Quebec in my case) is also a PITA. I don’t care who gets which percentage of my income tax, just distribute that behind the scenes and let me do my taxes _once_.

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