It sounds like the promoter/sanctioning body is trying to distract you from the real rip off.

You didn't have to pay VAT tax in Europe? That is the new way, everybody gets a piece of the pie. No sales tax, check your income and property. No income tax, check your property and sales tax. My favorite is renting a car the tax is almost as high as the rental. I don't give a damn if you need a new stadium in your town. I don't think I should buy it for you. Ya dude it sucks, but what are you going to do? Do you think the race will be cheaper or more expensive after they settle a law suit? Or will they even have one? We are all screwed either way.

Yes, much better in Europe, you just pay 50% more for the same product, so everyone gets their fair share. But hey, there's less fees & taxes... so even better, you have no idea what "cut" everyone is getting. Capitalism works much more efficiently when fees and taxes are hidden from the consumer. Same with the "free" healthcare. Just let bureaucrats negotiate all the rates. That will stimulate efficiency, competition and innovation.

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TrainingBible Coaching
http://www.trainingbible.com

There's always VAT included but in Europe it is required to advertise the price with everything included. So if something says it's 5 euro, that includes the VAT. The price it shows is the price you pay.

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Don't forget to attack!

One of my favorite "hidden" taxes is the yearly property tax here in NC on electric cars. There is an additional tax to electric car owners because the are not paying road tax through the hidden taxes in gasoline. Sort of a contra-incentive in my opinion.

Interestingly, when we were in Germany (Roth trip) last summer I asked lots of people about their taxes. I don't know enough about their system to give either a full or fair comparison, however, it seemed that if you add up all of the US taxes that we are not too dissimilar. Further it seemed their incentives were better aligned with intended results. The obvious visible examples were the use of wind and solar power. Lastly, it appeared to me that the services were better. Granted, I was just seeing a snapshot but it seemed they were making some smarter decisions on guiding their future.

In the US we seem to be all about the here and now. Politicians want the polling from today. So, we tend to sacrifice the future. Doing that perpetually is insidious destruction, but who cares as long as they appear to win today. Perhaps that is a great lesson from triathlon (long distance in particular) - the result today is based on the work that was done over the past 1, 3, 5, 10 years. That is the same in business and even with our families. Perhaps politicians will figure that out someday....or, we need to run slowtwitchers for office!

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David
* Ironman for Life! (Blog) * IM Everyday Hero Video * Daggett Shuler Law *
Disclaimer: I have personal and professional relationships with many athletes, vendors, and organizations in the triathlon world.

A bit of background.

In almost all cases, the processing fee is collected by the online-event registration company, that processes the registration on behalf of the event. Typically half of those fees ( in your case about $5) go to the credit-card company. These are the so called merchant fees. Note all of those processing fees DO NOT go to the online event registration company as some think - they typically get half or less!

There are many online event registration companies and Race Management organizations have many choices of provider. In almost all cases the Race Managment organization is quite happy to turn this work over to a third party service provider - registration, unless done properly can become a massive time-pit and headache for the many VERY lean Race Management organizations. The smart/good ones typically, will happily outsource this to a expert online registration company, who specializes in this service.

Now, some races/events will have an in-house registration system that they have developed on their own - for a cost with employees coding/programming it, and running it, or that they have bought off-the-shelf or through some form of subscription fee. The thing to note here, is that there is a "cost" for everything these days.

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Steve Fleck @stevefleck | Blog

Can you sue someone for goods that you paid for?

Don't like it, don't pay the fee.

You don't have to pay the fee, it's for the convenience of registering online.

they offer no other option. I under stand the workings of the fee. It would be nice if everything was included in the up front advertised price. Like in europe, VAT and all calculated in for one simple sticker price.