Archive for February 12th, 2009

When you go into a shop, you can wander round and check out the goods on the shelves. Under normal circumstances, there are either price labels or tags on the goods themselves or the price is quoted somewhere close. In other words, as you walk towards the checkout, you think you know roughly how much you’re going to pay. The variable is a sales tax. In some states, the tax is included in the price you see on the labels. In others, two prices are shown: the full retail price before tax and the amount of tax that will be added at the till. The reason for all this is simple. States believe people should be protected from scams. All the main terms for the sale, including a refund policy, should be transparent and out in the open for all to see. That way, if the sales assistant asks for a lot more money than you were expecting, you can walk away….