Consumers and Hidden Taxes: The Difference Between Hidden Taxes and Transparent Taxes

Let’s start out simple here.  Hidden taxes are hidden from costumer view and transparent taxes are easy for the customer to see.


Hidden Taxes are hidden from the consumer.

How are hidden taxes hidden and who from?  Hidden taxes, as I am referring to them here, are hidden from the consumer.  Yet the consumer is paying them because they are hidden inside the prices charged to the consumer, the taxes just don’t show up on the receipt you get at the checkout counter because they are included within, or hidden inside of the price paid for the item or service.

Transparent Taxes are easy for the Consumer to see.

One example of a transparent tax that is open and easy to see is the sales tax that residents of Washington State and many other states pay on all of their taxable consumer purchases.  The customer goes into a business, selects the items they want to purchase, goes to the checkout counter where the items are totaled up, and then a sales tax is added to show the final total paid by the consumer.

Whether it is called a sales tax, or given some other name, so long as the transparent taxes are added to the purchase total, rather than hidden inside of the prices a business charges, it would qualify as a transparent tax.

Thank you for taking time to read and ponder my opinion on this topic.
An Opinion Article by Dave Kemper
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It has been said that: "One definition of insanity is to do the same thing, the same way, over and over and over again, each time expecting to achieve a different result."
Therefore, we must either CHANGE the way we live, or we bind our future to our past as if with CHAINS.
"I do not consider myself to be better than anyone else.  But I do believe in exercising my right to not stay stupid."

David W. Kemper, Author
© Copyright 2014 by David William Kemper.  All right reserved
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