Wow, isn't it in USA? Do I understand you correctly: I see a "price" on a product, and have to manually multiply it by 1.2 (or whatever taxes are in USA) to know, what it actually will cost me?
Yes. Sales tax is levied by the state, not federally, so in every state sales tax is different and which items are subject to sales tax changes.
For example, in Massachusetts, the sales tax on most products is 6.25% so when purchasing most things you must multiply by 1.0625 to figure out how much it will cost. Most uncooked food does not have sales tax, but food served by restaurants does.
When eating at a restaurant, you're supposed to tip 15-20% on the total bill pre-tax, though a lot of people tip on the post-tax price depending on how cheap/generous they are. Many restaurants calculate the tip for you, but certainly not most.
Oh it's worse than that, in the USA it vary by state (even by city I think) and by type of products so you have to apply a different multiplier each time
In Minnesota for example, there's a state tax, and starting in 2000 additional optional taxes for the county and city. People don't bother calculating it, they just wait for the bill and look to see what percentage was applied if they're curious.
In the US if you go out for dinner and order the caesar salad (listed at $6), the skirt steak (listed at $15), and a glass of the house red (listed at $8) you will be presented a bill for $29 + sales tax, in NYC for example the bill would come to $31.58. Then you will be expected to leave between 15% and 20% on top of that as a tip, so generally you would be expected to pay $36-$38 for that meal.
Yes. In addition, the tax rate varies by state, by county, by city, and also by sub-city zones (1 mall in the city I went to college has an additional city tax that only applies to that mall).
