It is generally assumed that sales and excise taxes are borne by the consumer in the form of a higher price. Whether the burden is shifted entirely or partly depends on market conditions. Generally, the more likely consumers are to shoulder more of the tax burden, the less their demand for a product depends on its price. Usually, both the supplier and the consumer share the tax burden in terms of lower profits or higher prices.

Sales and excise taxes also affect the way in which goods are allocated to different uses. Higher prices resulting from taxation may decrease the quantities produced and sold. In time of war or other stringency, excises and sales taxes can therefore be used as a means of reducing the production and consumption of goods that are not considered essential.

It has been argued that excises distort the economy because they interfere with the natural functioning of market forces. The more general types of taxes, such as the VAT and the retail sales tax, provided they are applied at the same rate to all consumption spending, are assumed not to affect price relations to any marked degree and are thus thought to be less distorting.

Contemporary discussions of excise taxes are presented in Sijbren Cnossen (ed.), Theory and Practice of Excise Taxation: Smoking, Drinking, Gambling, Polluting, and Driving (2005); while global sales tax issues are considered in Michael S. Greve, Sell Globally, Tax Locally: Sales Tax Reform for the New Economy (2003).