I mean, there are countries where tourists don’t have to pay tax on top of items (meaning they pay for it tax free given if they presented their passport upon purchase proving they’re merely only a visitor, that won’t work on expats though). There are countries who have tax refunds when visitors are leaving (basically reclaiming VAT whilst at the airport), they have already purchased the goods with VAT paid but gets refunded upon them departing.
‘sales tax’ is collected and remitted to the state by merchants, but paid by the customer.
It’s silly to insist it’s being paid by either the merchant or the customer. Regardless of how you conceptualize it, the result is the same.
The entire revenue is paid by the customer. Sales tax is itemized out. It’s been intentionally pushed towards the consumer as to prevent it being known as a business tax.