The real reason for your proposed dollar coin

[wserra]

Long live the Dorsai Irregulars!

[Pottapaug1938]

I'm procrastinating and so I had some random fleeting thoughts. What if they eliminate all coinage? Would they end up rounding to the nearest dollar or would it all be rounded up?

Canada hasn't gone that far; but they stopped minting 1 cent coins in 2012, and their lowest value coin is now the 5 cent piece. The way that their rounding works is that you total up the purchases, just as they always have. If the grand total ends in a 1 or a 2, it gets rounded down to the previous 0. It it's 3 or 4, it gets rounded up to the next 5. If it ends in 6 or 7, it gets rounded down to the previous 5. If is ends in 8 or 9, it gets rounded up to the next 0.

In the end -- you win some, you lose some; and the rounding rules are prescribed, so the paranoiac rant of "they'll just cheat us by rounding everything up" seems to something less than accurate.

[NYGman]

I am betting there are people who when they go shopping, for many items, groceries for example, the spit up their purchases in to groups that would result in only rounding down, just to mess with the tax man. I know I would be tempted to do that.

[Burnaby49]

I am betting there are people who when they go shopping, for many items, groceries for example, the spit up their purchases in to groups that would result in only rounding down, just to mess with the tax man. I know I would be tempted to do that.

It has nothing to do with taxes, just how your change at the till is determined in the absence of pennies. It took the population of Canada a grand total of about thirty seconds to adapt to a pennyless world.

[NYGman]

My bad, I figured I was the tax bit rounded down. In the US we add tax to the price, so $10 in NYC becomes 10.89. so I'm my mind, rounding up would give an extra penny to the government add the store gets it $10, .90 would go to NY.

[Burnaby49]

My bad, I figured I was the tax bit rounded down. In the US we add tax to the price, so $10 in NYC becomes 10.89. so I'm my mind, rounding up would give an extra penny to the government add the store gets it $10, .90 would go to NY.

We have a sales tax in most provinces (I believe Alberta is the only exception) which is imposed on the sales price of the items purchased. How much change you get is irrelevant to the amount of tax imposed. It's largely irrelevant for most transactions anyhow because it is only an issue in cash purchases. The penny still exists in the digital world so if you pay by debit or credit card your billed amount is the exact purchase price.

[KickahaOta]

We have a sales tax in most provinces (I believe Alberta is the only exception) which is imposed on the sales price of the items purchased. How much change you get is irrelevant to the amount of tax imposed. It's largely irrelevant for most transactions anyhow because it is only an issue in cash purchases. The penny still exists in the digital world so if you pay by debit or credit card your billed amount is the exact purchase price.

So there you go; that's how the clever citizen profits from this. Before deciding on a form of payment, figure out the total. (I suppose you could wait for the cashier to bring it up, but since we're all naturally brilliant we can do the math in our heads.) If the total ends in 1, 2, 6, or 7, pay cash and get your downward rounding. If the total ends in 3, 4, 8, or 9, pay with plastic. You could easily save as much as four cents per day!

[Pottapaug1938]

We have a sales tax in most provinces (I believe Alberta is the only exception) which is imposed on the sales price of the items purchased. How much change you get is irrelevant to the amount of tax imposed. It's largely irrelevant for most transactions anyhow because it is only an issue in cash purchases. The penny still exists in the digital world so if you pay by debit or credit card your billed amount is the exact purchase price.

So there you go; that's how the clever citizen profits from this. Before deciding on a form of payment, figure out the total. (I suppose you could wait for the cashier to bring it up, but since we're all naturally brilliant we can do the math in our heads.) If the total ends in 1, 2, 6, or 7, pay cash and get your downward rounding. If the total ends in 3, 4, 8, or 9, pay with plastic. You could easily save as much as four cents per day!

Wow! After a whole year of this kind of circus, I could rake in as much as $14.60 ($14.68 in leap years)! That's just about enough for a growler fill at the brewery where my son works.

[NYGman]

You could easily save as much as four cents per day!

You will be rich in no time, using that method. Free money, perhaps you have uncovered Bobby Menards next cunning plan to get rich.

[KickahaOta]

For added savings, if the total ends in five or zero, pay with Re or promissory notes.

[The Observer]

Wow! After a whole year of this kind of circus, I could rake in as much as $14.60 ($14.68 in leap years)!

Laugh all you want, but you are forgetting that this is a huge sum of money for a FOTLer like Dean who has to maintain his hobo status.

[Pottapaug1938]

Wow! After a whole year of this kind of circus, I could rake in as much as $14.60 ($14.68 in leap years)!

Laugh all you want, but you are forgetting that this is a huge sum of money for a FOTLer like Dean who has to maintain his hobo status.

At least in Massachusetts, his time would be much more profitably spent collecting deposit bottles and cans and taking them in for redemption. In non-deposit states, he could take the cans, crush them, and bring them to a scrap metals dealer.

[The Observer]

At least in Massachusetts, his time would be much more profitably spent collecting deposit bottles and cans and taking them in for redemption. In non-deposit states, he could take the cans, crush them, and bring them to a scrap metals dealer.

The words "Dean Clifford", "time" and "profitably spent" should never occur in a sentence, since those conditions could never be met.

[Pottapaug1938]

At least in Massachusetts, his time would be much more profitably spent collecting deposit bottles and cans and taking them in for redemption. In non-deposit states, he could take the cans, crush them, and bring them to a scrap metals dealer.

The words "Dean Clifford", "time" and "profitably spent" should never occur in a sentence, since those conditions could never be met.

Welllllllllll... it could happen... just like Congress could start using rock-paper-scissors to settle arguments over proposed legislation.