Just got back from Subway where I ordered one of their new $5 foot long Subway sandwiches that they’ve been pushing hard here in San Francisco. $5 for a foot long sub is not a bad deal, plus it would be nice to lose all that weight like that Jared fella did by eating at Subway every day. The only thing is, somehow I doubt Jared was ordering footlong Double Meat Italian BMTs every day though. I had no idea you could even get 70 grams of fat in a footlong.

But here’s a tip. If you’re a cheap bastard, when the kid at the Subway counter asks you if you want your bread toasted or not, be sure and say no, at least in California.

Why?

Well with a sandwich on toasted bread at Subway they charge you sales tax. But with a sandwich on untoasted bread they don’t charge you sales tax. Check it out yourself if you don’t believe me. I just went there with my brother and another friend. My sandwich was not toasted and was $5. His sandwich was toasted and was $5.43 or so.

Another tip is when you order your coffee in California always order it to go. Even if you are going to consume it there. Why? Similar tax rules apply. Coffee to go is sales tax free in some cases, coffee ordered to drink there has sales tax.



Welcome to the wacky world of the California State sales tax.

Of course if you really wanted to save sales tax all of the time you could always just leave California entirely and head up to Oregon where they don’t charge sales tax on anything at all… and equally cool, it’s illegal to pump your own gas there.