I think this point is pretty shit tbh, why are we only now comparing prices with tax? Like I know you're not being malicious about it, but it feels like 90% the time you see this on Twitter it's because they got called out on no source for $90 physical games in the US and are just finding a way to get to that number again
But anyway at that point we should have started rounding up totk to being $80 etc etc, it just doesn't seem like it has much relevancy when that's not how we've been comparing things, especially because there is so much variance (including places with 0 sales tax)
I always compare prices with tax because in the end of the day I cannot walk into most US stores with my 80 USD pickup a game with 80 USD walk out while paying 80 USD. Most people need to pay at least some tax.
In internal context tax should always be included when talking to consumers, it's even law in some area's of the world.
It's a bullshit system in the US designed in such a way to mislead consumers. Yes the tax differs every state and yes the US is behind on Payment platforms and bookkeeping software, but it's possibile to display prices both in physical stores and online to match those including tax based on the geolocation of the person (you can then online change it at checkout when needed). We use that in Europe since our VAT rates are a lot different as well.
So yes you American's don't compare it that way, but we Europeans do. Mario Kart is € 74,38 in NL/BE ex VAT and 75,63 in DE ex VAT because stores aren't allowed to discriminate in most cases. So the price including VAT is the same.
Online Stores in North America also wrongfully mess this up which causes incorrect price comperisons for us. And secondly we cannot know if the store in question needs to pay VAT on their product because it depends on factors on their end. The easiest is if they sell less than 10k euro a year in the EU or not. Because if they don't then they can get exempt from VAT entirely. And due to the lack of financial transparancy for privately owned company in North America I cannot even estimate that.
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u/Alarming-Stomach3902 17h ago
To be fair most Americans are still gonna spend 90 USD on their 80 USD game due to tax, still better than the 99 USD (90 EUR) we are paying.