Steel Coin Bill Gets Hearing In House.

I do not think you understand how it works. At the end of the month they still have to report total sales and pay their taxes. The government is not going to give up anything. Even if they did, the loss would be a fraction of what they already lose to other nefarious cash only transactions.

No they don't, not anymore! They did up through last year, but only because they were striking dollar coins. If they had stopped making dollar coin in 2011 instead of 2012 the mint would have reported a $34 million dollar loss for last year. The vast majority of the reported profits for last year was the seigniorage from the dollar coin. Well this year there are no dollar coins, and cent and nickel production is probably up which means a bigger loss this year.

Last year they lost $60.2 million on the cents, $56.5 million on the nickels, and $23.3 million on "mutilated and other" On the profit side they made $61 million on the dimes and $45 million on the quarters. That's $140 million in losses and $106 million in profits. the only thing that kept them out of the red was $382.8 million in profits from the dollar coins. And we don't have those this year.

I don't know how it works in your state. But where I live the state issues a tax schedule, and if a vendor does not follow it, the vendor is held liable and the state will make the business follow their schedule. It is not as simple as a business applying the sales tax rate to their sales. If during an audit the state determines that a vendor has not remitted the full tax collected (less their discount) then the vendor can be prosecuted for tax cheating.




Poppycock, that may be well an good where you live, but I can assure you that it is not happening everywhere.





I think that you should do the math. If you realize it or not the cost of consumer electronic payments is already reflected in the cost of the products that we all buy. If there is a cost to a businessman, then that cost is passed on to the consumer. There are a number of gas stations in my area that offer discounts for cash customers, but appropriate sales taxes are still charged to the penny.

In our daily lives the Social Security Tax law, for one, does not allow employers to round down the tax. Income tax withholding is another.

The only entity that will be coming out on the short end of this deal is the consumer. Even if the vendor rounds down a purchase the state will still want its full due. In the end rounding down will be a cost of business that will be passed on to the consumer however miniscule it may be.

I'm not saying that the idea is not without merit, but there are a lot of things that have to be worked out I just see that this will be nothing more than an another hidden cost passed on to consumers (however small).

I vote we go to nothing but Ikes and Kennedys for coins. That would solve the $.05 debate.

Jbuck, I see your point, and would agree that the locally owned shops do/would round down. But I can't see the chain stores like Wal-mart doing that. I may be wrong. The best comparison I can think of is cell phone companies. If you talk on your cell phone for 1.01 minutes, how many minutes does that count for?

I can't see stores like Wal-mart always rounding down either. They will simply scan the items, apply sales tax, and the cash register will round correctly. Exactly what happens right now at the gas station when you buy gas priced in tenths of a penny.

$51 million

So yes if you put that in they would have still shown a profit of $17 million, but wouldn't it make more sense to drop the cent and nickel and make $106 million plus the $51 million for a total of $157 million instead of $17 million?

Or get rid of the dollar bill, keep the dollar coin and show a profit of $382.8 Million plus the $157 million for a total of $539.8 million instead of $17 million?

Need I remind you of whom we are speaking? Though I do love the fact that it would appear obvious thanks to your explanation.

If we had never removed Liberty from our coinage, would we even be having this conversation now?