# Things you've seen abroad you wish were adopted world wide **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [May 28, 2021, 2:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-youve-seen-abroad-you-wish-were-adopted-world-wide/943094 "2021-05-28T14:31:59Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 20
**Author:** ![doreen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/858c86/32.png) [@doreen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/doreen)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2021, 5:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-youve-seen-abroad-you-wish-were-adopted-world-wide/943094/383 "2021-10-14T17:43:04Z")
Me too - I think all the states that offer the “flat rate based on income” method 1) exclude certain purchases ( in my state, individual purchases over $1000 in which case you must file a sales and use tax report) and 2) provide a safe harbor so that even though my flat rate is $33 and that would be around $400 in purchases , once I have paid that, I don’t need to worry that $2000 in purchases will show up and I own more in use tax. Plus, I’m pretty much guaranteed to actually owe at least $33 in use taxes, between on-line sellers who don’t collect my states sales tax and purchases made out-of-state where either no tax was collected or a lower rate was collected - this includes anything taxable that I buy when I am in NJ and take back to NYC, as the tax rate in NJ is about 2% lower ---
**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2021, 5:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-youve-seen-abroad-you-wish-were-adopted-world-wide/943094/384 "2021-10-14T17:45:56Z")
I think the only sales we need to individually record of we pay the safe haven amount is autos. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2021, 5:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-youve-seen-abroad-you-wish-were-adopted-world-wide/943094/385 "2021-10-14T17:51:27Z")
I thought for out-of-state automobile purchases, they collect the sales tax when you register the car? ---
**Author:** ![Horatius](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/horatius/32/3572_2.png) [@Horatius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatius)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2021, 5:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-youve-seen-abroad-you-wish-were-adopted-world-wide/943094/386 "2021-10-14T17:54:34Z")
> [@SanVito](#): > > Cordless/tap to pay card machines have been the default for years and years. There’s a price limit of the tap to pay option, but that’s going up to £100 I think. They were available here in Canada for years, but weren’t really the default. I always avoided them because they’re basically completely unsecured, and so the limit to use them was pretty low, like $50 most places, so it wasn’t really practical for a weekly grocery bill or a night at the pub. But with the pandemic, they upped that limit, and it’s now high enough that I don’t even know what the limit is, because I’ve never hit it. I guess we all just decided the risk of fraud is less than the risk of COVID. ---
**Author:** ![Machine\_Elf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/82dd89/32.png) [@Machine\_Elf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Machine_Elf)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2021, 6:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-youve-seen-abroad-you-wish-were-adopted-world-wide/943094/387 "2021-10-14T18:13:20Z")
> [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > I thought for out-of-state automobile purchases, they collect the sales tax when you register the car? That was my experience here in Michigan a couple of decades ago. Bought a motorcycle out of state, rode it home, and when I went to register it I had to pay the sales tax. ---
**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2021, 9:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-youve-seen-abroad-you-wish-were-adopted-world-wide/943094/388 "2021-10-14T21:37:07Z")
Yup, that’s how they enforce it. ---
**Author:** ![GaryM](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/garym/32/241_2.png) [@GaryM](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GaryM)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2021, 3:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-youve-seen-abroad-you-wish-were-adopted-world-wide/943094/389 "2021-10-15T03:49:59Z")
In Missouri that’s how you pay the taxon all motor vehicle purchases. Doesn’t matter where you bought it. When you buy plates you pay the sales tax. ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2021, 10:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-youve-seen-abroad-you-wish-were-adopted-world-wide/943094/390 "2021-11-14T22:11:07Z")
Coins that you can actually buy things with. ---
**Author:** ![PatrickLondon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/patricklondon/32/4422_2.png) [@PatrickLondon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PatrickLondon)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2021, 8:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-youve-seen-abroad-you-wish-were-adopted-world-wide/943094/391 "2021-11-15T08:03:05Z")
I think you’ll find that cash (whether coins or notes) is being overtaken by electronic payment in many places. ---
**Author:** ![Toxylon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/f05b48/32.png) [@Toxylon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Toxylon)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2021, 12:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-youve-seen-abroad-you-wish-were-adopted-world-wide/943094/392 "2021-11-15T12:32:15Z")
Many smaller groups, but at least one large group, children, are still completely reliant on cash for purchases. Around here, 15 is the earliest age a person can get a personal debit etc. card. Up till then, and for millions of people, it’s cash only. And the one and two Euro coins have actual buying power, too. ---
**Author:** ![SanVito](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sanvito/32/2805_2.png) [@SanVito](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SanVito)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2021, 12:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-youve-seen-abroad-you-wish-were-adopted-world-wide/943094/393 "2021-11-15T12:55:32Z")
Pre-paid, parent controlled debit cards are available from age 6 in the UK. Seriously, I’ve got to the point where if I want to use cash, I feel like I need to ask first. ---
**Author:** ![kitap](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/b9e5f3/32.png) [@kitap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kitap)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2021, 1:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-youve-seen-abroad-you-wish-were-adopted-world-wide/943094/394 "2021-11-15T13:18:21Z")
In Italy they had to mark on the menu any dish with frozen ingredients. I like that idea. Also I like having to put the menu with prices outside the restaurant. ---
**Author:** ![Machine\_Elf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/82dd89/32.png) [@Machine\_Elf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Machine_Elf)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2021, 1:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-youve-seen-abroad-you-wish-were-adopted-world-wide/943094/395 "2021-11-15T13:23:37Z")
> [@kitap](#): > > Also I like having to put the menu with prices outside the restaurant. In Japan, it’s customary for restaurants to have a display case outside their restaurant featuring plastic display models of the menu offerings. Prices are often included as well. They’ve been doing this for nearly 100 years now, and the models these days are impressively realistic. This is super handy for foreign tourists who can’t read Japanese, as they can still visually ID what’s on offer before they even set foot in a restaurant. > **[Food model](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Food_model)** > > Food models, also known as fake foods, food figurines or "food samples" (Japanese: 食品サンプル, romanized: shokuhin sampuru), are scale models or replicas of a food item or dish made from plastic, wax, resin or similar inedible material. They are commonly used as mockups in restaurant display windows and shelves in Japan, although other countries like South Korea and China also use such models for similar promotional as well as decorative purposes for restaurants, food boothes and street food carts. ---
**Author:** ![PatrickLondon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/patricklondon/32/4422_2.png) [@PatrickLondon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PatrickLondon)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2021, 4:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-youve-seen-abroad-you-wish-were-adopted-world-wide/943094/396 "2021-11-15T16:13:08Z")
On the other hand, there’s a common assumption that places that display photos of their menu offerings might be best avoided. Or has instagramming every damn meal put that to rest? ---
**Author:** ![Machine\_Elf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/82dd89/32.png) [@Machine\_Elf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Machine_Elf)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2021, 6:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-youve-seen-abroad-you-wish-were-adopted-world-wide/943094/397 "2021-11-15T18:05:56Z")
Yeah, in the US for the past few decades it was just greasy-spoon and “family dining” restaurants (TGI Fridays, Appleby’s, etc.) that put pics in their menu. But lately (before the pandemic) I was seeing nicer restaurants intown offering tablet menus that include photos of each menu item. ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2021, 1:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-youve-seen-abroad-you-wish-were-adopted-world-wide/943094/398 "2021-11-16T01:34:11Z")
> [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](#): > > As a former programmer who actually did do some work in text processing, I think that makes infinitely more sense, in terms of parsing a sentence. Human language isn’t parsed like a computer compiler, though. I much prefer periods in _all_ abbreviations, just to set apart abbreviations from non-abbreviations. ---
**Author:** ![SciFiSam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/47e85d/32.png) [@SciFiSam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SciFiSam)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2021, 1:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-youve-seen-abroad-you-wish-were-adopted-world-wide/943094/399 "2021-11-16T01:45:41Z")
> [@SanVito](#): > > Pre-paid, parent controlled debit cards are available from age 6 in the UK. Seriously, I’ve got to the point where if I want to use cash, I feel like I need to ask first. Yep. Specifically aimed at kids and with various protections on them due to the age of the user. Parents only ten to get them for their kids from 10 or 11 or so but that’s because it’s not very likely they’ll be using them before then. It’s handy for grandparents and others who want to gift cash on birthdays and the like too. Plus you can get a basic debit card at the age of 12 at many banks and have been able to for a very long time - I had one when I was 12 and that was over 30 years ago. ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2021, 1:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-youve-seen-abroad-you-wish-were-adopted-world-wide/943094/400 "2021-11-16T01:46:57Z")
> [@Sitnam](#): > > Airport Taxi Booth These exist at (many? some?) U.S. airports. Sometimes, a single taxi company might hold a monopoly on taxi rides leaving the airport. > [@Max\_S](#): > > > [@Dark\_Sponge](#): > > > > Taxes already built into the retail shelf price in stores. > > That would be nice This would require a major overhaul in the U.S. governmental structure. Currently, taxes can be applied to a sale by so many different overlapping jurisdictions and governmental entities that figuring out which taxes apply before the sale would be a monumental headache for any retail outlet with more than one location. The convenient solution is to apply the tax at the register/till, which has a fixed position and is really the only entity that “knows” what the available taxes are. That is until we start installing artificial intelligence in individual retail items. ---
**Author:** ![Novelty\_Bobble](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/a3d4f5/32.png) [@Novelty\_Bobble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Novelty_Bobble)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2021, 8:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-youve-seen-abroad-you-wish-were-adopted-world-wide/943094/401 "2021-11-16T08:14:05Z")
> [@Acsenray](#): > > This would require a major overhaul in the U.S. governmental structure. Currently, taxes can be applied to a sale by so many different overlapping jurisdictions and governmental entities that figuring out which taxes apply before the sale would be a monumental headache for any retail outlet with more than one location. Unless each _store_ regularly changes physical location there is no difficulty or extra hassle in doing that. The government need not be involved at all. If the store knows what to apply at the till then it is really straightforward to do so on the shelf. They may not want to simply because it allows them to put a cheaper price on the shelf. ---
**Author:** ![doreen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/858c86/32.png) [@doreen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/doreen)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2021, 11:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-youve-seen-abroad-you-wish-were-adopted-world-wide/943094/402 "2021-11-16T11:54:17Z")
The hassle is not with individual stores putting prices on the shelf in general - you’re right, that’s easy. What’s not so easy is advertising that includes prices ( including sales circulars, etc ), pre-priced products ( common with some types of snack foods and baked goods ) and “putting the price on the shelf” in some situations - I know a place where three state borders meet. How should a furniture/appliance store there display its prices as the tax will be calculated based on the delivery location? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-youve-seen-abroad-you-wish-were-adopted-world-wide/943094.md?page=19) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-youve-seen-abroad-you-wish-were-adopted-world-wide/943094.md?page=21)