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Comment by ceejayoz | Hacker News Reader

That's an argument for fixing the rules. As functional rules in this regard are clearly possible to create.

The EU has a similar smattering of disparate jurisdictions (with varying VAT rates) just like the US does.

Googling says 27 tax jurisdictions in the EU versus over 13000 in the US. Again, not quite as simple as you're making it out to be. And for what? Making the checkout process slightly more convenient for people who lack the mental ability to estimate their total?

> Googling says 27 tax jurisdictions in the EU versus over 13000 in the US.

Cool, great place to start. Let's fix that. Both have similar land mass, similar populations, similar balance of federal-ish and state-ish and local-ish governance, similar cultures, etc.

> And for what? Making the checkout process slightly more convenient for people who lack the mental ability to estimate their total?

Surely handling 13k tax jurisdictions is expensive for businesses and consumers on many levels?

what are the unintended concecuences of your plan? Until you figure themout don't propose a change as it might be overall worse.

Proposal: Brick-and-mortar stores, at least, should have to list in-store prices inclusive of tax.

Unintended consequences: None?

Forcing brick-and-mortar stores to show a higher price including tax than that shown by online stores seems like it would have some unintended consequences. It would likely push more people towards online purchases even if the final price is identical.

I deliberately browse AirBnB's Australian version because it tells me the actual cost of the listing, inclusive of tax and fees.

Prices are already quite different between online and in-person shopping.

For a computer what is the difference between 27 and 13000?

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