Cash totals to be rounded in Ireland

The Irish government decided yesterday that cash totals can be rounded to the nearest 5 cent. Since the 1 and 2 cent coins are legal tender throughout the currency union, they will continue to be legal tender in IE too. But due to the new rounding rules, considerably fewer of them will be needed. The Central Bank of Ireland explains the procedure here:
http://www.centralbank.ie/press-are...olloutofroundingof1cand2ccoinsnationally.aspx

In the euro area, the same rounding rules already apply in Finland, the Netherlands, and Belgium. Businesses may choose to round or not round the cash totals.

Christian

 

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Well, I would say they did that since you actually HAVE functioning governments over there. Our Congress and President simply insists in testing Einstein's definition of insanity, i.e. doing the same things over and over and expecting different results.

 

Thanks for posting the story. They may want to check their math though (unless it's some kind of euromath I've never seen before ).

 

Canada is already rounding off cash transactions to the nearest 5 cents and it works quite well.

 

Yep, works well in the countries that I mentioned (FI, NL, BE) too. And @bdunnse , obviously the central bank is about as good as me when it comes to maths. Thanks for pointing that out!

Christian

 

Do they have sales taxes in those countries?

 

Sort of. We have a VAT in the European Union, but of course the price tag shows the price that the consumer pays, not some "net price" where you add all kinds of taxes and fees at the checkout.

Christian

 

Don't some countries also have a sales tax in addition to the built in VAT tax? I believe Canada does.

 

Some provinces, like Manitoba, have the GST (Goods and Services Tax) and PST (Provincial Sales Tax). Alberta only has the GST and some provinces have the HST (Harmonized Sales Tax) which is just the GST and PST put together. It usually comes out to be between 10 - 15% with Alberta as the outlier at 5%

 

For who ?

 

Canadians, I suppose ...

Christian

 

The government not the people

 

That may be the case in Canada, dunno. In Finland and the Netherlands, most people - merchants and customers - consider those low denomination coins to be a nuisance, and are glad that they are pretty much gone. Not sure about Belgium, as the rounding rules are still relatively new there.

Christian

 

I always find it funny because people from the States seem to complain more and care more about us rounding our currency than we do.

I don't even notice it in my day to day transactions. I guess if you really wanted to say screw you to the government you could pay cash for transactions that round down and pay by debit or credit on transactions that would normally round up but who wants to bother with that? Seems petty to me.

I was only annoyed with the loss of the penny because I can't roll hunt them anymore.

 

When I was on vacation in Vancouver last summer I spoke to cashiers about rounding purchases to the nearest 5 cents and they all were happy to no linger need to deal with pennies. As for myself, I find pennies a bit of a nuisance and have no problem with this arrangement.

 

What's next? No nickels?

 

Eventually, yes.

 

New Zealand has a top ten major world currency and they dropped their 5-cent piece several years ago, so they round to the nearest 10-cents. NZ even has their 10-cent piece minted in copper-plated steel.

 

Wow.....fiat currencies only.....

 

This system actually works even better for those who believe 'saving every penny counts' as whizb4ng mentioned.

When it is rounded down, you can technically save 2 cents. I.e. $10.72 -> $10.70.

If it is rounded up, you can pay by card and you can still save 2 cents because you get charged the exact amount. I.e. $10.73 -> $10.75. You pay only $10.73 and save 2 cents.

If mints must offset the cost of producing cents with other coins - I'll rather have them get rid of the cents which may help to bring down the cost of producing mint sets.