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California Considering More Internet Taxes

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the got-to-pay-off-the-thieving-energy-companies dept.

dcg writes "San Francisco Chronicle is reporting on how web taxes could help the states, especially California, with its budget woes. One particularly disconcerting comment is from California's Controller Steve Westly. 'In addition to sales taxes, Westly said he is considering a tax on Internet access like those that appear on telephone bills. He also is looking at a tax on software downloads.' Would this affect only purchased software, or could sourceforge.net become a source of revenue for the state..."

2 of 475 comments (clear)

  1. Tax on Downloads by cgori · · Score: 5, Informative

    They are simply closing a (well-known) loophole.

    If you buy expensive software (i.e. chip-design tools at >$100k per user) and you take delivery via FTP instead of physical media (CD/tape), you do not owe sales tax. On a big purchase (multi-million $$) the 8% is a BIG deal. It happens a lot in the Valley.

    I'm surprised that it took the bureaucrats in Sacramento this long to find a revenue "source" this big.

  2. Re:Solution! by baywulf · · Score: 5, Informative

    You do get taxes recursively. You pay income tax on your salary. Then when you buy something, there is a sales tax. Then the company which got your money pays taxes on it. Then they pay their employees and that gets taxes. And it repeats on an on.