That's why I spelled it out. The customer isn't the only
involved in the transaction. People are complaining that
rebates aren't for their exclusive benefit. They're
right. But nobody is forcing you to buy the product.

Barry Watzman wrote:
Sales taxes are collected on mail-in rebates, they are NOT collected on
"instant rebates".

The rest of your post is conjecture that may be true in some cases and
not true in others. From the customer's perspective, it doesn't matter:
An instant rebate is just a sale price (and sales taxes are NOT paid on
the rebate amount; only the "net" rings on the register and is charged
tax).


M Berger wrote:
You have missed a big part of the picture.

With mail in rebates, the store sales figures aren't
decreased as they would be with the instant reduction.
Localities like it because they get the full sales tax
amount.

In most cases the store doesn't pay the rebate, the parent
company or manufacturer does.