What part of - YOU COLLECT FROM ME - are you having trouble understanding?
Do you drink, go to bars? You belly up to the bar and order a beer, the bartender gives you your order and tells you that you owe him $3.00, and you pay it. I assume that your state collects sales tax on alcohol sales. So the bartender didn't say that it was $3.00 plus tax, he just said $3.00. That price included the sales tax, he just didn't tell you it did. The bar has based its price on its costs, plus profit, plus the tax.
If your goods or services (including your profit) are worth $100.00 then you will list the walk out the store with it price as $123.00 (or $129.00 for the included 6% state sales tax).
As the consumer, I will base my buying decision on a number of factors. But I know, in one way or another, I will be paying a tax.
As for being liable; you became liable when you made the sale and collected the tax. And at the end of the night, when you're totalling up your receipts, you take the money you collected for taxes and deposit it in your tax account the next day, and the money you collected for your goods or services in your general account. You're only liable for sending in the money to the government at the end of the quarter, just like you are now for the state sales taxes.
Unless of course you're planning to skip town with that tax money, and then you'd be a crook.
I really don't see the problem here. Why are you having trouble wrapping your brain around it; or as I suspected earlier; do you have a vested interest in keeping the current Rube Goldberg system we have now?
I also collect my income tax from customer, so where's the difference? The biggest difference is under the sales tax I pay on gross income, and under the income tax I pay on net income. The fact is I still send a check to the government and the customer is where the money came from in BOTH cases.
Next, he'll tell you that prices don't include any tax costs. Really, he will.