Taxes, Fees and surcharges...they add up

[kgtest]

Ever wonder if you pay too many fee’s? With all the taxes, fees, Interest and Surcharges it’s no wonder people work until they die! Here’s a few I’ve come up with and try to vigorously avoid!

State Sales Tax – State Trooper needs bullets for their guns
Local Sales Tax – Sheriffs need gas for the cruiser
Federal Income Tax – Feds get theirs before anyone!
State Income Tax – If you are lucky, you don’t have to pay this one
Self-Employment Tax – For those of us so fortunate to be livin the American dream
Federal Excise Tax – This little gem is hidden on many transactions…including airline tickets
Property Tax – Do we ever really own anything?
Wheelage Tax – Paid when I renew my vehicle registration

Then there is a splattering of fee’s that pop-up almost everywhere…
Commission Fee – Charged when selling equities
Transaction Fee – Charged when using a credit card
Processing Fee -
Filing Fee – Never really did get the difference between a processing fee and a filing fee, sometimes you see both
Origination Fee – Equity hounds need to get their cut.
Overdraft fee – Bankers need their cut
Convenience Fee – Why not charge someone for being lazy?
Annual Credit Card Membership Fees – We need to pay before we ever use the card nowadays

Auto Theft Prevention Surcharge - This one is interesting, my insurance charges me $1/year because my vehicle has auto theft prevention mechanism. I wonder what the charge would be without?

[FONT=&quot]And then their’ s the airlines:[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]U.S. Federal Segment Fee charged by some airlines[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]U.S. Passenger Civil Aviation Security Fee aka 911 fee[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Passenger Facility Charge (PFC) at some airports in the US[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]Then I have the cell phone bill:[/FONT]
Federal Universal Service Fund
Transit Improvement Tax

For sewer/water/trash you can’t avoid it either:
[FONT=&quot]Fuel/Environmental Recovery Fee [/FONT]
County Environmental Charge
Solid Waste Management Tax – No such thing as a free crap, getting taxed to flush Mr. Hankey

[FONT=&quot]And of course, the best for last… INFLATION! And you thought your dollar was worth as much as it was yesterday…yeah right! [/FONT]

 

[jkern]

Don't forget:
Bridge toll
Gasoline
Alcohol
Hotels

 

[MichaelB]

Still no fee for E-R Forum membership!

 

[audreyh1]

I was getting frustrated with my cell phone fees. Then they came out with a no-fee rate which amazingly turned out to be cheaper, and we jumped on it!

Otherwise you had:

Federal Universal Service Fund
State Universal Service Fund
TX Recovery Fee
Regulatory Programs & Telco Recovery Fee

plus
State & Local Sales Tax
State 911
State Surcharge

 

[Sojourner]

One I came across recently that really left me shaking my head... a $1 "mail fee" for my local county's car tag registration renewal. They charge the $1 mail fee regardless of whether you actually mail in your renewal or do it online! Gotta love government bureaucracy

 

[audreyh1]

One I came across recently that really left me shaking my head... a $1 "mail fee" for my local county's car tag registration renewal. They charge the $1 mail fee regardless of whether you actually mail in your renewal or do it online! Gotta love government bureaucracy

Well - in TX they used to charge an extra $2 for doing it online, but now they dropped that!

 

[W2R]

OK, I have a story about sales tax.

In 1955, age 7, I saved my pennies until I had enough to buy a pretty handkerchief with hearts on it for my mother, for Valentine's Day. I think it cost about thirty cents so that was a lot for a kid back then. When I proudly took my money to the counter on the day before Valentine's Day, it wasn't enough, due to tax.

The kindly old man at the cash register told me about tax, and then paid the tax for me while cautioning me that I should always bring a little extra for tax.

So, I guess I have been aware of taxes for 62 years. It's something that I take for granted and doesn't really shock me at this point.

BTW, my mother saved that handkerchief all of her life. It meant the world to her. I didn't know that until after her death nearly age 98, when my brother found it among her few possessions and gave it to me. I'm so glad that the cashier taught me about taxes, and let me buy the handkerchief anyway.

 

[Trooper]

Great story, W2R!

 

[Walt34]

OK, I have a story about sales tax.

I learned about sales tax at about age 6 or so. A couple of us used to walk along some nearby railroad tracks and pick up Coke bottles for the then two cents deposit. I guess the bottles came from the guys that maintained the tracks, but if we went every other week or so it was usually worth the mile-long walk.

Back then the MD sales tax started at 25¢ and a candy bar cost 5¢. So I learned that if I was going to spend a quarter on candy bars to split the transaction to stay under 25¢.

 

[athena53]

Don't forget all the junk taxes and fees on hotel rooms and rental cars. It's a way to get money from the people who can't vote you out of office.

In North Myrtle Beach, where my parents used to live, one tax (can't remember if it was on hotel rooms or part of sales tax) went for advertising and PR to bring in more tourists. Wonder how many jobs that created for politicians' friends and family.

My pet peeve: sales taxes on top of other taxes (imbedded in the price of the product), which happens in my state with cigarettes and alcohol.

 

[JoeWras]

BTW, my mother saved that handkerchief all of her life. It meant the world to her. I didn't know that until after her death nearly age 98, when my brother found it among her few possessions and gave it to me. I'm so glad that the cashier taught me about taxes, and let me buy the handkerchief anyway.

Great story on a normally ugly subject. Thanks for sharing!

Today the cashier might say: "Hey little dude, it says here $5.37, I'm not sure why, but your $5.00 won't do."

To OP: thanks for adding water and sewer. My city is jacking these yearly in the interest of keeping the political tax rate stable. And you can't deduct them like property tax! Darn.

 

[cbo111]

Airport rental car fees have gone crazy. A typical midsize weekly rate of $175 often balloons to over $300 with all the fees and taxes.

 

[Sue J]

This one was new on our DirecTV bill a couple years ago - Regional Sports Fee. At first it was $2.14, then $3.63, now $5.83. We don't subscribe to any sports packages or special channels, this is just for regular sports on TV, I guess.

 

[Blue Collar Guy]

awesome love ur story

OK, I have a story about sales tax.

In 1955, age 7, I saved my pennies until I had enough to buy a pretty handkerchief with hearts on it for my mother, for Valentine's Day. I think it cost about thirty cents so that was a lot for a kid back then. When I proudly took my money to the counter on the day before Valentine's Day, it wasn't enough, due to tax.

The kindly old man at the cash register told me about tax, and then paid the tax for me while cautioning me that I should always bring a little extra for tax.

So, I guess I have been aware of taxes for 62 years. It's something that I take for granted and doesn't really shock me at this point.

BTW, my mother saved that handkerchief all of her life. It meant the world to her. I didn't know that until after her death nearly age 98, when my brother found it among her few possessions and gave it to me. I'm so glad that the cashier taught me about taxes, and let me buy the handkerchief anyway.

my sister bought my Dad a tie clip for fathers day she was about the same age maybe 9?,he had beautiful tie tacks, tie clips, diamonds, gold etc, he wore that tie clip exclusively, we buried him in it it was his most cherished,

 

[scrabbler1]

A few years ago, our main cable TV provider, Optimum, began a "sports programming surcharge" to cover the costs of providing some costly sports channels on its basic cable package. I find it pretty outrageous that Optimum forces its subscribers to pay a premium for some channels which aren't actually Premium channels, like the movie channels. I would love to opt out of having these sport channels as part of my cable TV package and save the surcharge, the same way I am not required to buy premium movie channels such as HBO. But the only way I could opt out of the sports channels would be to drop my cable TV to a very small set of channels, losing nearly all of the other basic channels.


This surcharge began at $4 per month but is now up to $5. It's a lot to pay for a few specific channels I never watch.

 

[Blue Collar Guy]

working for less than half- ill stay home

i call my tax guy, he told me the following. for every dollar i earn in pay i will fork over 10.5 cents for nyc and nys tax,- not deductible as i hit the alt minimum tax thing, social security 7.65 cents, federal 33 cents, so thats 51 % plus. yeah ill stay home, i left out disability insurance they slap you with as its only a few pennies per week, yeah lots of fees, my investments had the pleasure of paying some health care 3.8 % fee too, he didnt tell me that this time, i remember from when i did my taxes he was laughing at me that i had to pay it, hahahah my investments pay a health care fee , you cant make this up

 

[Blue Collar Guy]

here are a few more sweetners

in 1989 new york state added a mansion tax 1 % to the selling price of a home over 1 million thats in addition to the nyc 1.425 % tax and the state tax of 2 dollars for every 500, so a million dollar home costs 28250 in fees to the state and city, not indexed since they started this in 1989, nice right? yeah im going to florida

 

[kgtest]

Still no fee for E-R Forum membership!

Amen for that! Lots of fees I forgot lol.

 

[kgtest]

Airport rental car fees have gone crazy. A typical midsize weekly rate of $175 often balloons to over $300 with all the fees and taxes.

I never really did quite get why the taxes are so high for car rentals.

 

[travelover]

I never really did quite get why the taxes are so high for car rentals.

Because they can. The tax is paid by non-constituents - out of town travelers.

 

[Montecfo]

I was getting frustrated with my cell phone fees. Then they came out with a no-fee rate which amazingly turned out to be cheaper, and we jumped on it!

Otherwise you had:

Federal Universal Service Fund
State Universal Service Fund
TX Recovery Fee
Regulatory Programs & Telco Recovery Fee

plus
State & Local Sales Tax
State 911
State Surcharge

Well, its not no fee, they just bury the fees. But nice if you can save.

 

[Sojourner]

This one was new on our DirecTV bill a couple years ago - Regional Sports Fee. At first it was $2.14, then $3.63, now $5.83. We don't subscribe to any sports packages or special channels, this is just for regular sports on TV, I guess.

Yep, this fee is $5.83 for me, too, and is one of the many reasons I'm considering dropping DirecTV in the near future.

It's my understanding that the "regional sports fee" is for specialty channels that carry sporting events for teams in your area. This does not include major broadcast networks or ESPN. For me, living in the metro Atlanta area, the two regional sports networks are Fox Sports South and Fox Sports Southeast, which carry things like Braves baseball and Hawks basketball games. I think they also show games for local college teams sometimes, too. Considering I watch these channels maybe 2-3 times per year, I'm getting very little value for the $70 yearly RSN fee. I would get rid of these channels in a heartbeat if DirecTV allowed it, but they are a part of pretty much every base package that has other channels I watch frequently.

 

[audreyh1]

Well, its not no fee, they just bury the fees. But nice if you can save.

Since my rate went to the previous rate minus the taxes and fees I was paying, it's all the same to me!

 

[jollystomper]

Because they can. The tax is paid by non-constituents - out of town travelers.

In some places you can save by taking shuttle transportation or a hotel bus that will let you off near an off-airport rental facility that will not have that "airport concession" rental fee. Of course, you have to plan things very carefully since the off-airport locations are not open 24 hours (which I guess is was part of that fee pays for).

 

[athena53]

This surcharge began at $4 per month but is now up to $5. It's a lot to pay for a few specific channels I never watch.

When my Comcast bill went up by $5 because of an increase in a couple of similar fees it was enough to get me to investigate Google Fiber. I'll be getting that in a couple of weeks- Internet only plus Netflix. I'll live without a few Comcast programs and save $70/month.