>>>>>Our local taxes aren't taken from the salary though, that's a separate bill from the local authority (called "Community Charge"), and you have to arrange to pay that by DD.
>>>>
>>>>If I understand correctly you have value-added tax (VAT) hidden in goods/services prices, so making them higher than in US.
>>>
>>>I look at it the other way: you buy an article in a US shop and the purchase tax is "hidden" in that, when you get the till receipt the article's dearer than you thought. With us it's WYSIWYPay.
>>>
>>>Sme things, like a plumber's service, garage bill, will have to have VAT added. If you buy, say, a washing m/c, then the price on it is what you pay, i.e. already VATed.
>>
>>Yes, but USA doesn't have VAT. We have sale tax on most services (food, drugs and some other categories excluded). It varies in different areas, because it's local tax. In my area it's probably 8.5%, you never know until pay.
>
>"A thorn by any other name would prick as painfully". VAT or Sales Tax - it matters not what the robbing b******s call it, whether the money is local or goes to the govt. In Canada they have two, not always both applied - one being national and the other provincial. GST and PST or summat like that (the tax Michelle doesn't want us to have to pay for using the UT too, I think). On return to the UK you can claim it back as if it were VAT.
>
>(Here's where all the canucks start chipping in now!) :-)

Yes, but still sale tax is relatively low in US, and many areas don't have it at all. On the contrary, VAT number is rather significant, I guess. From time to time the idea to introduce VAT comes to US politics. Usually, it's referred as the way to decrease taxes. Good wishes.