I know there will be plenty of stories about how much this car costs this year as opposed to last. We always get news about gas prices changing due to various circumstances.
If there’s a change or addition to sales tax, that’s relatively easy to track for myself.
But, since tariffs are arguably a consumption tax, are there some ways of determining how much they are costing me personally?
Rawduke
Not really. If you were to track the cost of everything you purchase, and adjust for inflation, you could look see if the cost has increased over the next 12 months more than inflation and attribute that increase to the tariffs. The problem is that prices may go up for a number of reasons having nothing to do with tariffs. Some companies may decide to absorb the additional tariff cost to stay competitive with companies that don’t have to pay tariffs.
If you’re planning a major purchase, such as a foreign automobile, you can check the sticker price today (presumable it was imported per-tariff) and then track the sticker price over the next 12 months to see if it changes for that exact same vehicle. The problem here is that car prices are negotiable. So while the sticker price may increase due to tariffs, that doesn’t mean the car dealer won’t accept a smaller profit just to sell a car.