I bought the school stuff at CVS tonight (I did not see a posting here but they had 8 things free after ECB valid through today) and when I reused the ECB on a subsequent order, they scanned as CVS MFR COUPON, and they did not remove the tax as ones that scan as CVS COUPONS do (in New York, manufacturers coupons do not deduct the tax). At first I thought the cashier had screwed something up since I was having him reduce an $8 ECB by a few cents. But then he scanned smaller ones instead and they worked the same way. Needless to say, I am not happy. Is this happening everywhere? I am going to contact the Extracare people and see what the store is. I asked at another store and the cashier there said she had never heard of that.
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billrubin said:I bought the school stuff at CVS tonight (I did not see a posting here but they had 8 things free after ECB valid through today) and when I reused the ECB on a subsequent order, they scanned as CVS MFR COUPON, and they did not remove the tax as ones that scan as CVS COUPONS do (in New York, manufacturers coupons do not deduct the tax). At first I thought the cashier had screwed something up since I was having him reduce an $8 ECB by a few cents. But then he scanned smaller ones instead and they worked the same way. Needless to say, I am not happy. Is this happening everywhere? I am going to contact the Extracare people and see what the store is. I asked at another store and the cashier there said she had never heard of that.
Bill,
I'm surprised it's lasted this long. To be honest, I never really expected the extra bucks to wipe out sales tax. For instance, when we did the Walgreens programs and got the rebate gift card, full sales tax was always charged on purchases so why not on extra bucks?
I guess the other issue is a significant loss of sales tax revenue for the state/cities. I must say I do feel the state/city should not be penalized tax revenue on extra bux purchases. If I can use my extra bucks to COVER the sales tax, that's fine and nice, but I don't really expect the gravy train of it wiping off the sales tax from the order to last, especially in the economic climate we are in now and states desperate to fill their piggy banks.
As far as I know, ECB is (or used to be) treated as a "store discount" which is not subject to sales tax. Their systems simply recognize these as dollar off sales just like any other sale items, which is also how most "store coupons" work. I would be very disappointed to see ECB being treated as mfg coupons.
Any ECBs you earned after a certain date will show up as CVS MFG Coupons when redeemed and will not reduce your tax. For me it seems that everything with an expiration date of Aug 18 or later is doing this. ECBs that expire before that still take away tax. So it was somewhere around July 19 (30 days before Aug 18) when this started. That's why it seems so random as people report it. Some people use ECBs right away and noticed it first, while others like me typically use them just before they expire and may not have experienced it yet. So it will soon be a thing of the past to get your OOP down near zero when using ECBs to buy taxable items.
This will reduce my shopping at CVS because I will stop doing some deals that are free after ECBs if the items are of no use to me because it won't be worth it to pay the tax. Same reason I do 0 deals at Walgreens. I refuse to pay even 1 cent for toothpaste since I have hundreds of tubes already.
Interesting.. it was definitely my newly generated ECB that were working this way. I just called the CVS Extracare people and the guy said he was not aware of any changes. He did point out that the product-specific Extrabucks are funded by the manufacturer, and while he did not say it, that would make sense for them to be treated as manufacturer's coupons. But it sure makes the program less attractive.
zmaster said:Any ECBs you earned after a certain date will show up as CVS MFG Coupons when redeemed and will not reduce your tax. For me it seems that everything with an expiration date of Aug 18 or later is doing this. ECBs that expire before that still take away tax. So it was somewhere around July 19 (30 days before Aug 18) when this started. That's why it seems so random as people report it. Some people use ECBs right away and noticed it first, while others like me typically use them just before they expire and may not have experienced it yet. So it will soon be a thing of the past to get your OOP down near zero when using ECBs to buy taxable items.
This will reduce my shopping at CVS because I will stop doing some deals that are free after ECBs if the items are of no use to me because it won't be worth it to pay the tax. Same reason I do 0 deals at Walgreens. I refuse to pay even 1 cent for toothpaste since I have hundreds of tubes already.
but can't you simply factor in the tax as part of the spend and still pay with the extra bucks to cover the sales tax sort of how you'd use a gift card to pay for the sales tax on the old Walgreens easy saver rebates?
MISTERCHEAP said:but can't you simply factor in the tax as part of the spend and still pay with the extra bucks to cover the sales tax sort of how you'd use a gift card to pay for the sales tax on the old Walgreens easy saver rebates?I always figured the 10% bonus covered the sales tax with WG. There's no 10% bonus with ECB.
billrubin said:<snip> But it sure makes the program less attractive.
Uh, no. It certainly won't be driving me away just having to pay sales tax. I have a basement full of stockpile thanks to CVS, plus plenty of cash in my wallet from moneymaker items and selling items on CL.
billrubin said:MISTERCHEAP said:but can't you simply factor in the tax as part of the spend and still pay with the extra bucks to cover the sales tax sort of how you'd use a gift card to pay for the sales tax on the old Walgreens easy saver rebates?I always figured the 10% bonus covered the sales tax with WG. There's no 10% bonus with ECB.
you're missing my question Bill...ok an example.
With the Walgreens gift card, if you bought a $10 item with 7% sales tax it was 10.70. If you had $25 loaded on the Walgreens gift card, you could simply swipe it and $10.70 was deducted so you could use the gift card to handle the sales tax as well.
Same scenario now in the new CVS world with ECB's not deducting sales tax.
You have a $10 ECB and buy an item for $9.50 plus 7% tax (.66). Your total is $10.16 and you have a $10 extra buck. Will the $10 cover the sales tax (all except. 16) or will it beep because you only spent $9.50 and have to pay the .66 totally out of pocket?
that's what I'm trying to determine in this new set up.
No, the ECB does not pay for the sales tax. If you have a $1.07 total which is 99c purchase and 8c sales tax, and you have a $1 ECB, the ECB will beep and have to be reduced to 99c, and you will still owe 8c. I had this when I tried to use an $8 ECB that I was a few cents short on, and after the cashier reduced it to the pre-tax total, I still owed around 60c.
You end up out of pocket in real money (or gift card if you have one) to pay the sales tax.
billrubin said:No, the ECB does not pay for the sales tax. If you have a $1.07 total which is 99c purchase and 8c sales tax, and you have a $1 ECB, the ECB will beep and have to be reduced to 99c, and you will still owe 8c. I had this when I tried to use an $8 ECB that I was a few cents short on, and after the cashier reduced it to the pre-tax total, I still owed around 60c.
You end up out of pocket in real money (or gift card if you have one) to pay the sales tax.
ok thanks. that does stink on items you could care less about, but still worth it for items you do really want I guess.
billrubin said:I bought the school stuff at CVS tonight (I did not see a posting here but they had 8 things free after ECB valid through today)Thread from May 30; someone named billrubin replied to the post.
NoMoneyInMyWallet said:billrubin said:I bought the school stuff at CVS tonight (I did not see a posting here but they had 8 things free after ECB valid through today)Thread from May 30; someone named billrubin replied to the post. Fine, I did not see a RECENT posting here. Now I am sure you can find a thread in Hot Deals with the weekly ad with recent discussions (since it appears hat drug store deals are being posted to HD these days).
billrubin said:Fine, I did not see a RECENT posting here. Lighten up, Bill. I just thought it was ironic, since you posted in the thread. Been there, done that. Someone asks me about a program and I say I know nothing about it. They reply ... but, you were the last person to change it.
MrVietnam said:I redeemed Extra Bucks in California the other day and I didn't have to pay sales tax on the Extra Bucks...so it may be just a state by state thing.
when were they printed? this applies to extra bucks that were spit out of the registers after approx July 20th. If you got that extra buck on July 12th and just used it, that is why.
MrVietnam said:I redeemed Extra Bucks in California the other day and I didn't have to pay sales tax on the Extra Bucks...so it may be just a state by state thing.Do mfr coupons reduce tax in CA? They do in PA and my ECBs issued 8/1 and 8/3 still reduced tax.
NoMoneyInMyWallet said:MrVietnam said:I redeemed Extra Bucks in California the other day and I didn't have to pay sales tax on the Extra Bucks...so it may be just a state by state thing.Do mfr coupons reduce tax in CA? They do in PA and my ECBs issued 8/1 and 8/3 still reduced tax.
I'll have to keep an eye on this and report back. maybe it is a state by state issue after all.
MrVietnam said:I redeemed Extra Bucks in California the other day and I didn't have to pay sales tax on the Extra Bucks...so it may be just a state by state thing. No you are wrong. I am in SoCal. I have seen CVS MFR when used newer ecb. This MFR thing is nationwide. I don't know if ecb will eat tax or not like regular MQ does, I have seen someone said it does. But I have not seen it myself. It is more difficult to figure out my plan with this new ecb rule. My OOP has been high lately due to tax.
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