California Sales Tax Hikes - What it Means

"A Mcskillet burrito combo and a cup of ice coffee, please." I bought a breakfast in McDonald's this morning. "$5.84, please." the cashier told me. How come I have to pay 6 cents more? I paused a few seconds, oh...yeah; the California sales tax has been increased by 1 percent. For instance,if you buy something for 100 dollars, your total should be 109.50 dollars right now. How does the sales tax hikes affect me?

Just one day before the sales tax increases, I went to office depot to buy two things. Why I bought on that day? Obviously I didn't want to pay that few extra cents! Our bay area is currently one of the highest sales tax rate in the country (another one is in southern California). Over the past few years, many residents had already changed their buying habit, they may buy things from another city with lower sales tax rate, or do more online shopping, but since the economy entered the recession at the end of 2007, people are even buy less. The less consumer spending, the more hurt of the economy, and now the increases of sales tax would eventually become a vicious cycle for recession. When I came to California eight years ago, the sales tax in San Francisco was 8.25 percent. (Not cheap, but way better than now!) But now the sales tax is 9.5 percent, and that forced me not to buy anything unnecessary. I planned to buy another laptop computer later this year and now looks like I need to change my mind.

As a consumer, paying sales tax is our responsibility, everyone should pay that; as a business owner, collecting sales tax for the city is his/her responsibility. But there are many people refuse to pay sales tax in San Francisco, especially the Chinatown residents. My father is a store owner in Chinatown; he said many people don't pay any sales tax, when they are asked to pay, they even said: "Everyone in Chinatown doesn't need to pay tax!" Who said that? No sales tax in Chinatown! That's true, absolutely true if you ask a Chinatown resident. This is actually a very bad habit, and now this bad habit influences other ethnic groups, no matter White, Black, Latino, Asian, many people may ask not to charge them sales tax. But before you refuse to pay the tax, think it thoroughly: If everyone in the city refuses to pay the sales tax, the revenue of city and state would significantly decline, especially when we're under the recession and the financial deficits, the impact is more serious than you think.

Again, we are responsible for paying any required tax, and if you really want to buy things and don't want to pay anything extra, consider online shopping. But beware, some online stores still require sales tax, and even shipping and handling fees. That may cost you more eventually.