I have had just the opposite experience. I have had people just throw hissy fits when I priced my stuff and then calculate the sales tax. Some of them argued me, and when I didn't back down, just walked away and went to a different vendor who didn't do it legally and paid more than they would have with tax. Some of the "regular" market crowd here are there for a bargain and are used to shopping with backyard vendors who don't even claim their plants as income, let alone pay tax. I've also had them wink at me and tell me nobody needs to know. I wink back adn tell them I like to sleep nights and tack it on anyway. LOL. Sales tax isn't something to mess around with. If you sell a taxable item, you tax it. I list my prices on a white board now with the "final" price and put at the bottom in small print, sales tax is included. And it is. And they seldom notice and haven't asked since. LOL. Yes......when you have a line waiting service, and are trying to do it in the field with a calculator instead of a register, it helps to know the after tax figure.

My background is that I am a CPA who worked for H&R Block for 18 years. This is my first year not working for them so I have no personal interest in answering your question. Over the years I have had to handle many widows and widowers who had no idea how to handle their taxes. Very often they brought in every document they had EXCEPT the one I needed. I think that your money would be very well spent by going to Block at least for the first year. The Tax Cut program is Blocks and they can import the data from the prior year so they know what they are looking for from the prior year. Bring in the last two years of returns and have them check them for you as they may find errors and can amend them for you. I almost always found errors that got people a bigger refund than what they had to pay me in fees. If you do decide to do it yourself, I'd suggest that you bring the finished return and your source documents to a local Block office and have it checked. I never charged for this and you may get lucky and find a like-minded preparer. In either case, I would suggest calling and making an appointment. ALWAYS avoid the last week of Jan and the first week of Feb as that is their busiest time of the season. If you can wait until March it is the slowest time. I'd ask for the most experienced preparer in the office. Good luck!

I got news for you. There is no little man in the back room in the White House cranking out dollar bills. Seeing that is not the case, of course we will owe it back to the IRS, with interest! Please understand (I don't care what the politicians promise you...)there is nothing free. Geez, if they didn't need the money, why did they take it out in the first place? We ARE in a deficit, people. To help you understand: This rebate is like getting a loan from the bank. You get the money NOW, but you will have to pay it back & you will probably pay it back in triple amount. The government earns interest on that money, so all the interest lost in a year will have to be paid by the people. Oh wait, we are going to pay CHINA back, because we DON'T have the money. We will borrow it from China. Then we'll pay them back like mortgage payments, in triple amounts. I would prefer to see GOOD paying, SECURE jobs in the US. STOP outsourcing & STOP importing. I think that if people would know that good paying jobs are coming with good benefits (Freagin Healthcare!) you would see a surge in the Economy like in China. Hmmm, did I say China? They must be laughing at our stupidity & greed. It's common sense, people. Please don't be naive. The politicians will do anything & promise you anything in the election year. Some of them are promising things that they will never be able to deliver to their constituents. But people want to hear all the good things that "an inspirational" politician will give them for free. Get a grip. A little story as to what happened to us in our state in the Governor election year. We got $200 in a rebate check from the state (we have a state tax additionally to the Federal taxes). People were ecstatic...We had to pay it back in all sorts of taxes WITH INTEREST in the following years. It was one of the worst things that the governor did. IT got him re-elected. Everybody was excited when they got the checks, but I don't need to tell you about all the cussing at the governer in the years after...

As I said ... ... if you're interested in giving out interest-free loans ... ... let me know where the line-up starts, so that I can get into it before it gets too long. I won't borrow to invest in consumer items, as that means that I eat stuff this year that I won't pay for till next year, which means a reduction in next year's income due to paying for this year's eating. Not only that - I have to pay rent to the lender of the money for the use of his/her money. However - I may borrow to invest and expect to be doing so, soon, as the markets stay low. I've made three purchases in recent months using cash and have another to do soon. Plus I'm being forced out of one holding, which includes Canada's largest phone co., as it's being sold and taken private. That will free up some more cash in a few months. My bank told me a few months ago that they'd charge me prime rate, 6.25% on a fully-secured (by certificates of mutual funds and stocks) Line of Credit. I calculate that I can borrow to invest in high-quality stocks at almost no net cost. As interest on loans for investment is deductible, if I'm in 25% tax bracket, that reduces my effective cost to just under 4.75%. Core stocks, the kind that I'd planned to use for retirement, often pay about 3% dividend, which has been (Canadian) tax-advantaged for years and just became more so, meaning that I'll have about 2.5% in hand after the tax is paid ... which reduces my effective cost to just under 2.25%. Suppose I borrowed $10,000.00 15 years ago, agreeing to pay interest-only, and had done that (which I don't like doing - I want to pay down some of the principal as I go along ... I'm using this calculation for illustration). If I went in to pay off the loan now, how much would I have to pay? Right - exactly $10,000.00. And it will buy a lot less now than 15 years ago when I borrowed it. With inflation running at 2 -3%, that means that I borrowed the money at just about no cost. A couple of days ago, the bank says that they'll charge me at prime interest rate, now, 5.25%. Deduct tax at 25% is about 1.3%, moving down to slightly under 4%. As above, I receive about 2.5% after-tax from the stocks in which I invest, taking me down to just under 1.5% net cost. But inflation is running at 2 - 3%, and some expect it to go higher, somewhat due to increased fuel costs, that affects most stuff that we buy, incl. strawberries from Mexico in January). So it looks as though I'm gaining, at these rates. Suppose you put $10,000. into the bank 15 years ago, enticed (seduced?) by the bank's highly touted guarantee that, apart from the rent on the money, they'd repay every dollar that you'd lent to them, at the end of the contract. They never mention the corollary to that guarantee - that they won't pay one dollar more, either. Unfortunately for you U.S. folks, the inflation rat went into the bank and chewed off a corner of every dollar that you'd lent to the bank, every year that they'd held it. It'd have to be $5.00 bills for us Canadians, as our Loonies and Toonies are made of long-lasting, rat-tooth-hating metal. Actually, the rat wouldn't find your money in the bank - they lent out about $8.00 for every dollar that everyone deposited. Money in their till is like dollar bills in your wallet/under your mattress - they ain't workin'. So the bank took your $10,000. 15 years ago and lent it to me. Now, you want your money ... and I come to the bank to pay off my $10,000.00 loan ... that they then pay to you. I paid my loan with lower-valued dollars, and you got the same number of lower-valued dollars. I gained from inflation - you lost! Have a weekend that includes some effort expended to learn how money works - an excellent hobby - that pays well! ole joyful