Are you paying more in sales tax then you have to?

Many of the stores I shop at do not deduct the total of my coupons on taxable items, even though the PA Department of Revenue allows them to do so. I am being over taxed, are you?

 

This week at Walgreens I did the following transaction 6 times.

• Gillette Deodorant $5.79
• Gillette Body Wash $4.49

Coupons Used

• MFQ Gil. Deo -$2.00
• MFQ Gil. B.W. -$4.49
• sub total $3.79

I should have been taxed on $3.79 x 7% or $.27.

 

I was taxed on $10.28 x 7% or $.72.

 

That is $.45 on all 6 of my transactions that I was overcharged, essentially I was over taxed $2.70 at Walgreens.

 

I had the same thing happen at Giant Eagle. Yesterday I brought in this weeks receipts to Customer Service at Giant Eagle and they refunded me my $4.93 they had over taxed me.

 

I was over taxed $7.63 this past week, if the same thing happened every week I would be over taxed $396.73 in a year.  


Giant Eagle and Walgreens are not the only ones over taxing their customers. The same thing has happened at Kmart and Walmart.

 

What can you do to prevent this? Print out a copy of this article, Coupon Clippers Don't Reap Full Benefit at Big Stores, from the December 20, 2009 Pittsburgh Post Gazette and keep it in your Coupon Envelope. After you check out, review your receipt, if you were over taxed take the receipt and the article to customer service and ask for the refund you deserve. If we all do this, maybe the stores will fix their registers to stop over taxing us every time we use coupons on taxable merchandise. 

Hooray to Shop N Save and Target who deduct coupons on taxable items before charging sales tax.

I will also be adding the following PPG article in my Coupon Envelope.
Coupons and sales tax: Know the rules