NY taxing our taxes

[umccoyw]

Is it legal or even right that the government Taxes taxes? Ill try to explain what i mean and give an example. Cigarettes and Gas have Federal and state and sometimes local taxes put on them. So lets say a pack of cigarettes costs $2.00 (please not i am not sure what actually taxes are) now the federal government adds a $1.80 tax to it so now it costs $3.80. And lets say there is a $2.00 state tax on cigarettes now the pack will cost $5.80. So why is it that when you buy that $5.80 pack of cigarettes you are paying sales tax on the $5.80 and not just sales tax on the original cost of $2.00. Yes i know cigarettes cost more then that but everything with federal and state taxes on them we have to pay sales tax on those taxes? that doesnt seem right or even fair.

[Athelwulf]

1. I don't have an answer, but I'm intrigued.

Do you know a specific instance of this happening? Something you can cite? I'm very curious about this issue. It seems a little stupid of the government to do that. In fact, I think that runs counter to how things like this usually work. For example, if you have a coupon to buy an item 20% off, and there's already a 30%-off sale for that item, they would be cheating you if they took the post-30%-off price and took 20% off that (or vice versa), rather than adding the percentages together and charging you half price.