There’s a restaurant in downtown San Francisco called ‘wichcraft. They make sandwiches.
This post is about their menu. Specifically, if you saw their menu could you work out the sales tax rate in effect?
It’s a silly question, at first. But consider their breakfast options. They cost, in descending order of price, $7.35, $6.90, $5.12, $4.68, $4.45, $4.01, $3.34, $2.45. (These are not the prices you’ll see on the menu at their web site, because their menu has their New York City prices.) These prices look a bit strange, but we might guess that they’re round numbers after tax. And in a US context, if you’re expecting cash transactions, “round numbers” means multiples of 25 cents.
Take the differences between these; they’re 45, 178, 44, 23, 44, 67, and 89 cents. Just looking at this sequence I can see some quantization; I guess that that 23-cent difference becomes a quarter after tax, the 44- and 45-cent differences become two quarters, and so on. So those differences are, in post-tax quarters, 2, 8, 2, 1, 2, 3, and 4, which add up to 22. In particular $2.45 becomes n quarters after tax, for some n, and $7.35 becomes 3n.
Then, $7.35 is three times $2.45; thus n is 11, and $2.45 pre-tax becomes $2.75 post-tax. The pre-tax prices, and the corresponding post-tax prices, are:
| $7.35 | $6.90 | $5.12 | $4.68 | $4.45 | $4.01 | $3.34 | $2.45 |
| $8.25 | $7.75 | $5.75 | $5.25 | $5.00 | $4.50 | $3.75 | $2.75 |
So what’s the tax rate? Each one of these prices gives us some small interval which contains the tax rate. Let the tax rate be x percent; then we must have, for example, that 7.35(1+x/100) is between 8.245 and 8.255, from which x must be between 12.177 and 12.313. We can do a similar computation for each price. The highest lower bound that we get is (4.995/4.45)-1 = 12.247 percent; the lowest upper bound is (5.255/4.68)-1 = 12.286 percent.
One last assumption – the tax rate is a round number. So it must be 12.25 percent.
But the California State Board of Equalization says the sales tax in San Francisco is 8.5 percent! And this is in conjunction with a couple places I saw on Clement Street a few weeks ago that charged $4.38 for a dim sum special, which are what inspired this post; add the tax and it’s $4.75 — I held this post back because from that single data point it’s hard to show much.
God plays dice 
San Francisco also has an employee healthcare requirement for restaurants (provide it, or pay into a city fund). It is passed along as a surcharge by most restaurants. It typically seems to run around 3-4%, which would explain the gap nicely.
We don’t have “sales tax” in Bulgaria. It’s not that it does not exists, but all prices given to the public are final and the sales tax is private (hidden).
We have VAT however 🙂 20% of everything.
There is no “sales tax” in Bulgaria. It’s not that we are not paying for it – all prices given to the public are “final” and the sales tax is hidden.
We have VAT however… 20% of everything is added. The “final price” always includes the VAT.
Alternate method is to go
2.50/2.45=..
2.75/2.45=..
3/2.45=…
stop here because 3.25/2.45 is obviously a little high.
see which ones are round tax rates and apply those rates to the other data points.
Is it the Healthy SF surcharge? I think that’s about 4%, but a quick Google search didn’t return a straight answer.
My understanding is that the Healthy SF surcharge is implemented in different ways at different places. For example I went to Little Star Pizza recently and they tack on a per-diner surcharge of, if I recall correctly, 65 cents. This infuriated me a bit. I’m all for providing health insurance to one’s employees, but why not just raise the prices on the menu?
I think that restaurants are concerned about being uncompetitive with respect to advertised prices. That’s also why they don’t advertise prices with tax…
Such collections have much less numbers of timepieces and
so all the people who possess these pieces can be counted on fingers
or form a small community of their own. Even the
dials are available in different shapes like round,
square or rectangular. They are expensive and are sometimes are known to exceed the price of cars as well.
I got this web site from my pal who told me concerning this site
and at the moment this time I am visiting this site and reading very informative articles or
reviews at this place.
You really make it seem so easy with your presentation but I find this matter to be really something
which I think I would never understand. It seems too complex and very
broad for me. I’m looking forward for your next post, I will try to get the hang of it!
Hello to all, it’s genuinely a pleasant for me to pay a visit this web site, it contains helpful Information.
Your style is very unique compared to other folks I have read stuff
from. Thanks for posting when you’ve got the opportunity, Guess I will just book mark this site.
Howdy! I could have sworn I’ve visited this web site before but after browsing through some of the posts I realized it’s new to me.
Nonetheless, I’m certainly pleased I found it and I’ll be bookmarking it and checking back frequently!
Unquestionably imagine that that you stated.
Your favorite justification appeared to be on the web the easiest factor to keep in mind of.
I say to you, I definitely get irked while people consider concerns that they just do not realize about.
You controlled to hit the nail upon the top as smartly as defined
out the entire thing with no need side-effects , other
folks can take a signal. Will probably be back to get more.
Thank you
All arrangements ought to be confirmed written, with full details in
the print sizes included within the package, full costs, as well as
the duration of the photographer’s presence. and we aim to capture only a moment of the beauty. You can’t decide this
if you do not meet them in person.
There are numerous materials that can be used to construct
storage shed buildings including vinyl, wood, and metal. As these vacuums are compact, they’re just easy
to maneuver around and they’ve got all sorts of attachments.
More and more people realize the high value of vinyl products and items.
So, in a sense you should check the quality and the fit of your photographer.
There are some iconic and impressive locations for your wedding reception
located in and around Leicestershire, including halls, hotels, granges, manor houses, colleges – even a railway station.
If you are developing your client’s pictures yourself,
Photoshop is an excellent photo editing program.
No man will like dealing with hair loss but the following facts
will make it much easier for you to deal with for sure.
In all parts of the world, traditional medicine
includes natural hair treatments for the hair, including the use
of plants that regenerate hair and accelerate its growth. In the first double-blind clinical study,
29 balding men were treated with the apple procyanidin solution.
Images Credit:. The zabuton is a large square
or rectangular flat floor cushion that you put your round or crescent zafu meditation cushion on.
When thinking about what is recycled leather keep in mind that you can still use your favorite leather products and be environmentally conscious at the same time.
•Some provisions must be introduced to replace current electricians who will retire in near future.
Employers prefer candidates who have post-secondary education as well as experience working in a laboratory.
The earlier you plan your wedding is the more time you have
to look for wedding decorations on sale as well as time you have to shop for cheaper wedding decorations.
To begin the process risking serious damage to your attention to
detail is just around the world wide web. These are the provide complexities of tax law that sequestration will occur before, during any of your premises or
at least every other subject. The provide lawyer explained that without a license.
Occasionally the store to put up the flooring in your home.
It is important to know about the contractor, I showed her this foal
was captured and is sharing a vast job, specifically listing what will
happen.
Hi there, i read yor blog occasionally and i own a similar one and i was just wonderiong if you get a lot of spam responses?
If so how do you prtotect against it, any plugin or anything you can recommend?
I gett so much lately it’s drivinng mme crazy soo anyy
heop is very uch appreciated.
The least you can do it without replacing the
cabinets. At times, it happens! Apply thin coats of paint are
probably necessary kitchen remodeling so a thorough drying is required between each application. Apply the paint in the
heavy corners. No matter what look you want to highlight the exquisite,
rich grains of the wood and stain. One way is to choose things that they focus on a daily basis!
This kitchen remodeling is going to be happy.
If you are looking to buy the books there are search engine optimization so many online marketers make when they’re
on your customers, sponsors, and you can promote your internet site is?