Sales tax

Here's something that still riles me, its the way sales tax is handled in Canada and the rest of North America (least I think they do the same in Mexico...)

In the UK, where I grew up, we have something called VAT or Value Added Tax, its the same as sales tax and its applied to any luxury items of groceries and pretty much everything else. So far so the same. In the UK though, its an invisible tax. How so? Well the tax is included into the price of the goods you buy. If something costs £1 that's what you pay, you don't get to the cashier and get hit with paying £1.18 (VAT is 17.5%). The only time you ever have to deal with VAT is at a wholesale store when the people buying there tend to be businesses who can claim VAT against their taxes.

The first time in North America, I didn't bother with prices, I was in New York City for a Keith and the Girl meet up and I was hanging out with friends, getting drunk, having crazy fun and not paying attention to the price of things.

When I came back to North America, I was visiting Canada, staying with Kata, having fun, hanging out, we went to Toronto to hang out with Keith and the Girl friends once again and once again, not bothering about prices.

A few months later, I came back to Canada, this time to stay long term. Then I started to pay attention. You go to the store and you buy something, the tag on the shelf says $2, you get to the cashier and you're asked to hand over $2.26. My mind goes "huh?" OK that's an easy example because my mental arithmetic skills are pretty good, but if you go grocery shopping, you can't just take the price of what you are buying, add it all up and add 13% (in Ontario the sales tax is 8% PST (provincial sales tax) and 5% GST (goods and services tax which goes to the federal government)) because not all goods in a grocery store have PST and GST applied.

Sure I know this isn't really a big deal, but in the UK I used to pride myself on working out exactly what I had to pay before the checkout operator was done ringing up my sale, I'd have the exact change ready for them and give them that little extra surprise to make their day a little less of a drudgery.

Oh and of course when I go into a store like Best Buy or Future Shop to buy something big and pricey, like an iPod, or an Xbox, or a TV, I'd like to just pay the ticket price, not have to remember that whatever I'm buying is actually 13% more expensive, if it says $499, why can't I pay $499? Is it so hard to price items with tax? At least on a province by province or state by state basis, please?

I'm pissing in the wind here, I know it won't change, not so long as each state or province has its own tax values and people are used to the idea of paying more than the ticket price... woe is me, all on my own, maybe...