Taxachusetts

[Innkeeper]

It used to be when you shopped for wine in MA the price you saw was the price you paid, because it was taxed at the wholesale level. Now they have added a 6%+ retail tax too. No more stops for wine in MA.

[Kcwhippet]

Yeah. Last Friday we did almost double what we do on a "normal" Friday. People were coming in all day buying like crazy to beat the Aug. 1 start of the new tax.

[TheEngineer]

Yeah, and I wasn't even back in time for that....... There apparently is alrady a movement to repeal it. Hopefully it goes through [img]http://www.wines.com/ubb/smile.gif[/img] If there

[Thomas]

Come to NY. The taxes are built in, so you don't see them going up.

Ever notice how nice an increase in excise tax treats the authorities? It forces the producer to raise the price of the product. That raise includes the increased excise tax and then, with the sales tax on top of it, the value of that tax revenue to the state rises, too.

Taxes and insurance premiums are the safest and most profitable ways to make money.

[Innkeeper]

There was an article in the "Onion Leader" about how MA folks flooded over border over the weekend. It was titled "Traffic Flows North and Liquor Flows South." It went on to say the not all the northbound traffic was composed of touristumos.

[Kcwhippet]

Foodie,

The taxes used to be "built in", and the same (excise) taxes still apply at about 40% of the retail price. The difference is that the sales tax has been raised here from 5% to 6.25%, and the sales tax exemption on alcohol has been removed. Basically, we are now paying a taxt on the tax.

[Thomas]

Aha! KC.

You guys were having it good for a while. We've always paid sales tax on alcohol in NY. We pay sales tax on clothing, some food, and the air we breathe. And our sales tax is at 8.25%.

If NY legislators could figure out how to count them, they'd probably charge a sales tax on the number of raindrops that hit an individual's umbrella or rooftop.

[This message has been edited by foodie (edited 08-05-2009).]