Episode 78: The Price Tag Is Lying to You

[00:00:00] Welcome to English, please, the podcast where we explore interesting topics in under ten minutes in clear, intermediate English. I’m your host, Christopher. I live in New York City, and I’ve always been passionate about languages and how we learn them. Whether you’re listening on your way to work or while cooking dinner at home, this show is designed to help you with your English listening and comprehension skills.

Here’s a small mystery. You’re in a store in the United States. You pick up a bottle of water. The price tag says $1.00. You bring it to the cash register to buy it, and the total is more than $1.00. Not a lot more, but more. Why? [00:01:00] No mistake was made.

 This happens almost every time you buy something in the United States, and most visitors don't expect it. The reason is sales tax. In many countries, tax is already included in the price you see. If a shirt costs forty euros, you pay forty euros. In the United States, sales tax is added later when you pay and not before.

Here’s the part that makes it strange. There’s no national rate for this tax. The federal government doesn’t collect a general sales tax at all. Each state decides its own rate, and three states, Oregon, New Hampshire, and Delaware, don’t have a sales tax at all. If you shop in one of those states, the price you see really is the price you pay.[00:02:00] 

But most states do more than choose one amount. Many states also let counties and cities add their own tax on top of the state rate. Oh, counties are smaller regions inside a state and can include several towns or cities. Because counties and cities can choose their own taxes, two stores in different towns, even towns that share a border, can charge different combined rates on the exact same item.

Add it all up, and the United States has more than twelve thousand separate sales tax rates, depending on the state, the county, and sometimes the city. That’s why a company can’t print one price on a label for the whole country. The amount [00:03:00] changes street by street, so the same label can’t be right everywhere it goes inside the United States.

And it gets more complicated. The tax rate isn’t the only thing that changes from place to place. The list of taxed items changes, too. Some states don’t tax groceries, for example. Some states don’t tax clothing. Some tax almost everything. So the same item can be fully taxed in one state and tax-free or taxed less in another one.

This is why price tags in the United States show you a starting point, not the final answer. The full number only appears once the cash register adds taxes based on your location and that exact item.

The next time [00:04:00] you see a price tag in the United States and it looks simple, remember, it’s really the start of a small local calculation.

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Again, I’m Christopher, and I want to invite you to join me in future episodes of English, please to hear about a variety of topics, all focused on helping you with your [00:05:00] English. Subscribe now wherever you listen, and let’s continue this adventure together in clear, understandable English.

Sincere thanks, as always, for listening.

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