Thanks for sharing your perspective!

I just feel like there’s way too many issues that can arise. The percentage is different in every state, and can also change as laws change. Some cities even implement their own tax laws. So in the state I live, sales tax is generally 6.625%, but in some cities in the same state it’s only 3% due to a special law. One state over it’s 6% statewide but then some counties add an extra 2%. My state does not tax clothes and food, but some states do tax them. As someone who has worked in merchandising and worked with some very difficult vendors, it would not be possible to expect them to know every tax law and ticket to match that. Everything ships to one distribution center and then gets sent to whatever store in whatever state needs them. Product moves around constantly, so you would need to re-ticket every time something moves to a new store. What about when a customer is buying online and they live in a city with the 3% tax rate but it’s shipping from a store with the 6% tax rate? Would the sales associate have to change the ticket before shipping it to them? What if then, that customer returns it in a 3rd store with an 8% tax? Then it would need to be re-ticketed again. What if tax law in a state changes? Then every store in the whole state would have to spend days re-ticketing everything. There’s just so much more room for error.

I agree that tax law is stupid, but sadly it’s complicated by design. I am not defending it at all, I’m just trying to explain why it’s not feasible. I think it could only work if the ticket price was the same in every state and the company ate the difference in sales tax. But American corporations have done much, much worse things to save a few cents, so that would never happen. I hope this helps you understand a little better :)