$2 Cash. No Taxes.

If there were an hypothetical situation wherein a person bought something from a retailer, and it were not in the vendor's inventory system, I am 100% fine with the customer slapping cold, hard cash on the vendor's barrel head.

That's against the law!

Okay, call the cops. Call the revenuers. Then, instead of straight $2 profit, we have two options:

Option 1) The company spends 15 minutes of employee time putting the item in inventory, generating an invoice, and recording the sale, and the state gets $0.17. The employee makes $15/hour so 15 minutes of time to register the transaction costs the company $3.78 for a $2 sale. It would be better for the company (financially) to GIVE the customer a $2 item than to register a transaction that must be manually entered.

Option 2) The company Regulatory Girl contacts the police. A dispatcher ($30/hr) spends 3 minutes ($1.50 from the State) entering the call. A patrol officer ($30/hr) responds and spends 45 minutes on the call and filling out reports ($22.5 from the State). The vendor now has to spend 6 hours dealing with the ticket ($90 from the vendor) and pay a $10 fine PLUS paying the $0.17 (with interest) in taxes they (the scofflaws!) INTENTIONALLY FAILED to pay on the transaction. Now between the State and the vendor there is a net WASTE of $120 from the economy

. . . over a $2 transaction.

********

Officer Dave says: "Who reported this? Seriously? You called the Police to report a $0.17 failure to pay sales taxes? You, ma'am, are a tool. My report will indicate a total lack of proof that this "crime" ever happened, and if you keep talking I might lay charges against you for filing a false report. Never do this again."

. . . Then the company loses $30 in man-hours as the employees all make fun of the whole affair instead of being productive . . .