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Wisconsin Governor Proposing Tax On Downloads
Christopher Reimer writes "Ars Technica is reporting that the Wisconsin's governor is proposing a tax for downloads. From the article: 'Wisconsin's Democratic governor thinks it's not fair that tangible items get taxed while downloads, like music, ebooks, software, etc., go completely untaxed. So, he proposes to rectify the situation by having Wisconsin's 5% state sales tax apply to Internet downloads.'"
wisconsin, like most states with a sales tax, requires you, the consumer and tax payer to come clean and pay up on sales taxes owed for out-of-state purchases (usually at income tax time).
such as if a cheesehead goes to minnesota to buy school clothes for the kids. minnesota does not charge sales tax on clothes, wisconsin does. that cheesehead must tally up those out of state purchases where the paid tax (or lack of tax) is less than the tax they would have paid if the purchase was made in state... and pay up
this applies to internet purchases (including music downloads), mail order, etc... so, the law is already on the books.. it's just not enforced very well (or able to be).
software and music are already taxable items in wisconsin, so every april, those consumers who choose to buy online must pay up on the sales tax for those purchases.