"Miles Bader" schreef

: [I'm not sure if it's connected, but Japanese CCs are also _much_
: stingier about extending credit past the end of the month -- you
: _can't_ just decide to pay off your card bill a bit more slowly if you
: realize you're a bit skint this month

Same in Belgium. When I get my monthly credit card bill, I must pay the
outstanding amount on the card in full. Each new month must start with a
zero balance.

It is not possible casually to accumulate large amounts of credit simply by
allowing your payments to get further and further into arrears.

Colin Youngs
Brussels

Neil Williams wrote:


Presumably only one applies to any given shop?

True... So the shelf tag could reflect the after tax price. That creates other
problems as prices displayed would vary from store to store. Not a huge problem,
admittedly. Slightly larger problem would be advertising, which crosses multiple
boundaries.

"Adam H. Kerman" wrote:

There's really no federal issue at all,
unless Congress imposes a national sales tax.

The federal moratorium pertained to new internet taxes - not existing sales
taxes. I haven't looked to see if expired or is still in force.

It seems to me to be pointless to tax anything requiring a subsidy, as
that just creates a money-go-round, as it were.

That's the distortion argument. If you charge people the same tax on
everything they buy, it has no relative effect on their choices.

Also, I suspect that in most railways, some things are more subsidized
than others, and it'd add a lot of complexity to try to figure out
what to tax and what not to.

Concrete example: the Canadian government pays GST or HST the same as
any other purchaser when they buy stuff. That way, the vendors don't
have to deal with special cases and the tax the vendors collect is N%
of sales.

R's,
John

Roland Perry writes:
several pretty lame insults

Is this misc.transport.pot.kettle ?

Wait, it isn't?!

-miles

--
One of the lessons of history is that nothing is often a good thing to
do, and always a clever thing to say. -- Will Durant

On Mon, 23 Jan 2012 22:42:28 -0800, spsffan
wrote:

On 1/23/2012 7:54 PM, Roger Traviss wrote:
It's not an FTC rule. It's a US DOT rule, according to several news
articles
I've read. No, it is NOT acceptable to list the price, net of taxes and
fees, in large type, with the total price in small type. The new rule
on advertising total prices including taxes and fees takes effect on the
26th.

I cannot find anything similar for hotel quotes, though.

In America, on goods subject to sales taxes, practically 100% of pricing is
always without local, state taxes. They are added at the time of payment.

In Canada, because we have a value added tax and depending on what province
you live in as it varies, shown prices will not include federal and
provincial taxes. These are also added at the time of payment.




Indeed. I do love Canada, its people, including the many expats (here in
sunny Southern California) that I know, and it's beautiful landscape and
history.

But I do question the sanity of a country where you must pay tax on a
postage stamp. Is that still the case? It was in Vancouver in 1998. Oh,
and I mean federal VAT, not provincial taxes, as far as I recall.

Regards,

DAve

The postal system, like any other "business", is a service. In a VAT
regime, services as well as goods are taxed.

The majority idiots here in British Columbia have voted to dismantle
the provincial portion of the combined fed/prov harmonized VAT, to
return to a "goods only" sales tax for provincial purposes that
cascades through the chain, being applied repetitively at each sales
step... but the unwashed masses don't unnerstand that, thanks to the
bleatings of a disgraced right-wing twit who once led the Provincial
Government a couple of decades ago.

Nobody (oops, that's accidental) likes to pay taxes, but VAT is the
fairest system: thems who spends, pays.

And before I get pounced on, there are protections in Canada: basic
food, transit, and rent are exempt. Not to forget that income taxes
were cut when the federal GST was introduced in the late 80's, and
ditto with the conversion from the PST to HST in BC which now has to
be un-done.

And po' folks like me receive credits to offset our taxable purchases.

Incidentally, Ammurican (and other) visitors to Canada are able to
reclaim their GST/HST payments, though whether the effort to track a
few pennies on postage would make sense... (!)

Roland Perry wrote

Not into a central budget, each country still has control over how
much
it charges, and for which classes of item (although there are some
universals like no VAT on essential foodstuffs).

Nope, food always has a low rate but many EU states don't have a zero
rate for food..

Denmark for example IIRC.

--
Mike D

Adam H. Kerman wrote


I think government-owned land should be subject to real estate
assessment
and taxation and that the taxes paid, even if to itself, would show
up
on someone's budget. This might force more efficient use of land and
buildings.

Standard for property taxes in the UK, thus the County of Surrey has
its HQ in the borough of Kingston, Greater London and so, I understand,
pays Business Rates (property tax) to them. Obviously the tax base
assessed for utilities, parks etc is rather special but the principle
is clear and even central govenment, royal and defense establishments
pay amounts expressed as "in lieu of taxes".

--
Mike D

Colin Youngs wrote

"Miles Bader" schreef

: [I'm not sure if it's connected, but Japanese CCs are also _much_
: stingier about extending credit past the end of the month -- you
: _can't_ just decide to pay off your card bill a bit more slowly if
you
: realize you're a bit skint this month

Same in Belgium. When I get my monthly credit card bill, I must pay
the
outstanding amount on the card in full. Each new month must start
with a
zero balance.

It is not possible casually to accumulate large amounts of credit
simply by
allowing your payments to get further and further into arrears.

In the UK plastic is defined as debit cards, credit cards and charge
cards.

Charge cards are the "pay in full each month" type defined above for Be
& Jp. Classic American Express is the usual example though AmEx now
have credit cards too.

Most UK CC issuers offer an option for automatic payment of the minimum
or the full bill by bank transfer (Direct Debit) so avoiding interest
costs and late fees unless you can't pay or deliberately choose to
underpay.


--
Mike D

I think government-owned land should be subject to real estate assessment
and taxation and that the taxes paid, even if to itself, would show up
on someone's budget. This might force more efficient use of land and
buildings.

Here in New York, municipalities pay property tax on real estate they
own outside their own town. The well for our village water system is
a few miles away in the next county, and we pay town, county, and
school tax on the well and pump station.

R's,
John