←back to thread

The last-ever penny will be minted today in Philadelphia

(www.cnn.com)
460 points andrewl | 2 comments | 12 Nov 25 16:10 UTC | HN request time: 0.001s | source
Show context
Amorymeltzer ◴[12 Nov 25 18:05 UTC] No.45903482[source]▶
Some interesting complications with rounding I had not heard about before were mentioned here, worth noting I think, especially given the prominence of SNAP in the news lately:

>Four states - Delaware, Connecticut, Michigan and Oregon - as well as numerous cities, including New York, Philadelphia, Miami and Washington, DC, require merchants to provide exact change, according to the National Association of Convenience Stores (NACS).

>In addition, the law covering the federal food assistance program known as SNAP requires that recipients not be charged more than other customers. Since SNAP recipients use a debit card that’s charged the precise amount, if merchants round down prices for cash purchases, they could be opening themselves to legal problems and fines, said Jeff Lenard, spokesperson for NACS.

>“Rounding down on all transactions presents several challenges beyond the loss of an average of 2 cents per transaction,” Lenard said. “We desperately need legislation that allows rounding so retailers can make change for these customers.”

replies(6): >>45903640 #>>45903663 #>>45903907 #>>45904222 #>>45906009 #>>45907738 #
nofriend ◴[12 Nov 25 18:16 UTC] No.45903663[source]▶
just make the price a multiple of five cents
replies(1): >>45903695 #
mattnewton ◴[12 Nov 25 18:18 UTC] No.45903695[source]▶
State and local taxes make this infeasible
replies(9): >>45903774 #>>45903855 #>>45903859 #>>45903884 #>>45904011 #>>45904546 #>>45905231 #>>45905307 #>>45905600 #
1. estimator7292 ◴[12 Nov 25 19:05 UTC] No.45904546[source]▶
With some 5th grade algebra, one can adjust the total of a transaction to result in a round number after taxes.

Besides that, the law (at least where I live) is that the tax must be paid, but it does not specify by whom. It's completely feasible for a retailer to pay the 2 cent difference in the tax and charge the customer a round number.

Is this really the state of American education where a percentage calculation makes a very simple situation literally impossible? You can think of no other way to overcome the complicated calculations of checks notes x times 1.06?

replies(1): >>45906376 #
2. axiolite ◴[12 Nov 25 20:44 UTC] No.45906376[source]▶
Even with just a 6% tax, you end up with prices that need 4 digits of precision after the decimal (e.g.: $11.6494). That issue extends over a wide range of pre-tax/input prices, so one would have to DRASTICALLY change the prices so that the price including 6% tax rounds to even a penny, let alone a nickel.

While you could calculate a price that (after tax) would round a single item to the nearest nickel, it's completely IMPOSSIBLE to do so with unknown numbers of multiple items.

In addition, tax rates in the real world aren't just single-digit percentages. They have precision of 1/1000th of a percent, making such a calculation much more challenging.

Arizona: 10.725% Hawaii: 4.712% Minnesota: 7.875% etc.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sales_taxes_in_the_United_Stat...

And sales tax rates can be different from ONE CITY BLOCK TO THE NEXT, so a company with more than one location would find it IMPOSSIBLE to advertise their prices at all.