I went to exchange a Walmart Evert Start Maxx Battery today.
Truth be told, right on the battery it says “5 year WARRANTY”, “3 Years Free Replacement 2 Years Pro-Rated”
(They have since changed the Warranty to 3 years free replacement only)
Ok.
So They tested the battery and said it was bad.
So they gave me a $59.00 credit towards the replacement. Fair enough.
So, I got home and started thinking and looked at the receipt.
So Walmart Charged me $159.94 PLUS 7% sales Tax of $11.43. AND a Core Charge of $12.00
(obviously I brought in the old battery)
On the battery it clearly says " 5 Year Warranty"
Since when do you pay full taxes again on a WARRANTY exchange?
Am I wrong? I could see paying tax (maybe) on the diff between the new battery and the credit.
But taxing the entire amount of a new battery seems like double taxation to me.
(The Cust Serv clerk didn’t want to refund the core…I did get the core charge back…but only by getting the store manager.)
It is common industry practice to refund the pro-rated “value” of the failed battery plus tax, and charge the full price of the new battery plus sales tax on this amount. The only thing which is not kosher is charging the core charge fee. That should only be charged if you are not returning a used battery, so you were correct to make the manager remove that charge.
All the OS that my work had over the years, all added the battery core to the price, but you had the option to delete or later on discount it down to $0.00… So I think the employee just like most in Walmarts service department didn’t know how to remove the core charge… Probably was on lone from the shoe department or something…
I assume the sales tax laws where you live mean that tax is applied whenever you buy something.
You bought a new battery at a reduced price. The fact that the price for that new battery is lowered because of a warranty issue isn’t really relevant. You bought something for $XX and the government is gonna get their share.
You certainly should not have been charged a core charge.
The sales tax calculation is probably required by your state’s elected politicians. There’s a retail store here that offers coupons for free dollars-off money on your next visit. If I present a $3 coupon, and buy something for $3, it’s not a free transaction. I still have to pay sales tax on the $3 purchase. If I buy three items for $9, say for simplicity they are $3 each. The $3 coupon is apportioned over each item, $1 each. If two of the items are sales tax free (food items for example here in Calif are sales tax free), then I only pay sales tax on the $1 coupon. This complexity makes checking the receipt for accuracy close to impossible, and often results in a lot of yelling and screaming between the customers and the clerks. I sort of feel sorry for how the clerks are treated due to this complexity.
A (store) credit doesn’t reduce the purchase price of the item. The pro-rate credit should be calculated from the pre-tax price of the battery, you don’t receive a tax credit on the transaction.
Might just be I have tax fatigue.
Seems everyone gets hammered with taxes from every direction (taxes are also often called “fees”) from cradle to grave.
If you feel you’re not being taxed enough then by all means feel free to pay mine for me
America was born over tax revolts actually.
I know it’s what they do. I’m just saying when I took the battery back in it was for warranty replacement. I know bureaucrats love more taxes, I just don’t think it’s always appropriate.
I think I read that 40-70% of ALL your income goes to taxes in one form or another.
In reality, The US has one of the lowest effective tax rates of the developed nations.
Of the 38 nations in the OECD, The US ranks 32 out of 38 for its effective tax rate, with only Costa Rica, Turkey, Chile, Ireland, Colombia, and Mexico having a lower tax rate relative to its GDP.
Thanks for posting that, @VDCdriver - nonsense like the 40%-70% claim comes from sources intent on causing problems. Claim the government is doing outrageous stuff! Planning to take over Texas! Taking more than half your money!
I used to think folks wouldn’t fall for these. Now I know they will.
The number of people who fall for blatantly-biased and unsubstantiated information is amazingly high. For example, I used to know a guy who claimed that about 1/3 of the US budget went to foreign aid. In reality, that figure is less than 1%.
There’s a lot of political semantics that goes on to confuse this issue. For example, to keep the discussion car related, if you get a speeding ticket here, say 45 mph in a 35 mph zone, the basic fine defined by the state legislature might be $75, but you’ll actually have to pay closer to $500. The difference between the $75 and $500 are the “fees” added on used to fund various gov’t programs; “fees”, “taxes” seem like the same thing.
I’m not really going by “what people fall for”.
I’m going by "what I have to pay"specifically, what comes out of my pocket and my budget.
I really couldn’t care less what they pay in other countries because that doesn’t affect my wallet.
Wikipedia is not a reliable source imo.
This tax collected by walmart is a perfect example. Taxation on the initial sale, then taxation again on the warranty. This time, I was taxed on $159.00. That was not my actual cost for the battery. I paid taxes for something I received basically gratis (warranty).
it’s hard to believe so many folks don’t respect or don’t know what happened in colonial America and how America became in the first place. It was over a tax revolt.
Just curious, is sales tax charged to a shop customer when they get their car’s oil and filter changed? If so, does the sales tax apply to both the materials and the labor?
Maybe it varies by state? Here in my area of Calif there’s a hefty 10% sales tax that applies to most everything I purchase, car parts from parts stores, hardware store items, lumber, and including eating at restaurants , but doesn’t apply to most grocery store food. Some grocery store food is still taxed though, mostly stuff a person presumably doesn’t absolutely need, like beer. I think soda drinks are taxed as well. Candy? I don’t think candy is taxed. Ice cream definitely isn’t taxed, nor are yummy Cheese It crackers. I guess the thinking is you need ice cream and candy and Cheese Its to survive, but don’t need soft drinks and beer.
Not sure that taxes as a % of GDP is what @DIYWrencher is speaking about. More about how many dollars they have to pay w/respect to how much they earn. Also that “taxes” is an ambiguous term, politicians use rhetorical tricks to confound the issue. However, America’s founding issue wasn’t about taxes so much, but that the founding citizen’s didn’t have enough input to the UK gov’t officials about how much taxes they were charged. Later on there was sort of tax revolt about taxes on whiskey. Decision was the taxes were just and must be paid as I recall.
Small business owners, consultants, medical professionals, all take a big hit on income and payroll taxes, while others, rich and not so rich, get off with paying less.
Taxes as a percentage of GDP is important because it shows that government income compared to market value of all final goods and services during the same time period. The chart can be interpreted as room for more government income but doesn’t suggest a source. Note that during the semiconductor Industrial revolution of the 1980s and 1990s taxes as a percentage of GDP were up to 4% higher than today yet our economy still expanded a great deal.
That @DIYWrencher and @asemaster complain about taxes might be related to who is paying the taxes. Tax revenues in 2022 were $4.9 trillion, half was from personal income taxes, and that’s the highest percentage of GDP ever according to the Congressional Budget Office. Also note that the deficit during the same period was $1.4 trillion, 20% of expenditures. Some politicians think that they can cut waste and recoup that. I don’t believe it. It’s so unbelievable that my suspicion is that by waste they mean whole departments must be closed. Even then it won’t be enough. They also want to reduce benefits we pay for like social security, Medicare and Medicaid. This is not an easy problem and something needs to be done. Unfortunately, no politicians are willing to do the hard things to get it right.
