Explain the probable incidence of a general sales tax imposed by a state

What will be an ideal response?

A general sales tax is borne by the consumer since there would be no opportunity to shift purchases from goods with the sales tax to those without it. The sales tax would raise the price of all products by the specified percentage and consumers would pay correspondingly higher prices that included the cost of the tax which is sent in by the retailer. The retailer might notice some slight diminution in overall sales as a result of consumers spending more of their disposable income in sales tax, but the effect on each individual retailer should be negligible.