Pennsylvania To Apply 6% 'Netflix Tax' (allflicks.net)

An anonymous reader writes: Governor Tom Wolf of Pennsylvania has signed into law a new revenue package that will require residents to pay a 6% sales tax on their streaming subscriptions. AllFlicks reports: "Though the term 'Netflix tax' has become popular, laws like this don't just affect Netflix -- they also affect competitors like Hulu and HBO Now. App purchases and ebooks are also affected. They recently decided on a hefty $31.5 billion budget, and they came up $1.3 billion short of paying for it. The government is trying to close that funding gap, and streaming subscribers are being stuck with the bill." Magazine and newspaper subscriptions, as well as digital versions of the Bible, will be exempt from the digital downloads tax, reports CBS Local News in Pittsburgh.

Comments

any proxy sales soar

[itzdandy]

...get your vpn proxy now

Re: any proxy sales soar

[UdoKeir]

The PA legislature has a Republican majority in both houses. So... Nice try?

Re:any proxy sales soar

[Anonymous Coward]

PA: "Hey Netflix, who is subscribing with a PA address?"
Netflix: "Fuck off, we're not in your taxing jurisdiction."

Re:any proxy sales soar

[rworne]

Watch that...

Not only can you get sued for pirating digital content, but now pirating can be considered a form of tax evasion too.

Start taxing religions

[Anonymous Coward]

Start taxing religions with their mega churches, it is nothing but a business.

Religious Exemption

[BitZtream]

I watch Netflix religiously, surely that is cause for an exemption if the Bible gets one.

Re:Religious Exemption

[monkeyzoo]

No one should've modded you down!

This law is a flagrant F.U. to the separation of church and state...
"Digital versions of the Bible will be exempt from the digital downloads tax."

If they wanted an exemption that would do society some good, thye should exempt textbooks, but then kids might get exposed to more of that heretical "science."

Re:Religious Exemption

[R3d M3rcury]

I was just going to say, that doesn't sound fair. What about digital versions of the Talmud or the Koran or the Bhagavad-Vita?

Re:Religious Exemption

[bws111]

Except there does not appear to actually be such an exemption. It appears to have been made up, probably to generate outrage and hence clicks.

Here is what the state says the new changes are. It includes 'e-books and otherwise taxable printed matter'. It does not mention bibles anywhere.

So, bibles must not be 'otherwise taxable printed matter', right? Nope. Here is the list of what is taxable. The list starts on page 14. First item on the list is 'Books', and right under the heading is this statement. "Tax is imposed on books, stationery and stationery supplies, including Bibles and religious publications sold by religious groups."

Oh, and further down the list we find that textbooks are NON-TAXABLE.

Yay for regressive taxes!

[rsilvergun]

For those of you playing at home those are taxes that disproportionately impact the poor, working poor and (in this case) working class. They're worth double points because not only do you get to use money to fund tax cuts on the 1% but the people you tax get angry and start demanding tax cuts; which you can oblige with even _more_ tax cuts for the 1%. Uncle Rove calls this "Starve the Beast".

Re:Yay for regressive taxes!

[Anonymous Coward]

Democrats don't really care about the poor. They care about power, control and expanding their empire (bigger government). One way to lock on to that power is to keep people poor and keep promising them services from the bigger government. Grow your empire and keep people dependent on it to keep voting you back in power. If you actually cared about poor people, you'd be looking at making them self sufficient and not dependent on government services.

Ok

[jfdavis668]

back to pirating content.

Sounds kinda illegal

[fustakrakich]

Doesn't this bump into the Internet Tax Freedom Act and the Trade Facilitation and Trade Enforcement Act of 2015?

WTF PA?

[monkeyzoo]

Glad to see the separation of church and state is alive in well in the U S of A!!!
"...digital versions of the Bible will be exempt from the digital downloads tax"

If they wanted an exemption that would do society some good, they should exempt textbooks, but then kids might get exposed to more of that heretical "science."

Re: WTF PA?

[ArmoredDragon]

There's that, and I am curious how they're collecting sales taxes from Netflix given that Netflix likely doesn't have a presence there.

Re:WTF PA?

[pthisis]

Glad to see the separation of church and state is alive in well in the U S of A!!!
"...digital versions of the Bible will be exempt from the digital downloads tax"

If they wanted an exemption that would do society some good, they should exempt textbooks, but then kids might get exposed to more of that heretical "science."

The summary is terrible.

Textbooks purchased from or through accredited schools are exempted. The Bible is not specifically exempted, but purchases by qualified charitable organizations, volunteer fire companies, religious organizations and nonprofit educational institutions are unless used in an unrelated business capacity--there's no particular preference for religious organizations over other social nonprofits, and nothing singling out particular religions.

The tax is not specifically on streaming video. It extends the state's 6% sales tax to online purchases--streaming video is included, as are video downloads, streaming and downloaded audio, and other online purchases like ebooks, apps, games, e-greeting cards, etc.

Compressed air tax

[The Grim Reefer]

Does this really surprise anyone since it's coming from the state with a compressed air tax?

Re:Compressed air tax

[harvey the nerd]

pffffft !

Full Text

[fulldecent]

Full text of enacted bill.

FULL TITLE: Act 84 of 2016

EXPLANATION: http://www.revenue.pa.gov/Gene...

SUMMARY:
http://www.revenue.pa.gov/Gene...

FULL TEXT:
http://www.legis.state.pa.us/c...

Re:Only the Bible?

[guises]

Do you seriously believe that that's in the bill as it's been written? You see that and think to yourself: "This confirms my worldview of stupid evil lawmakers. I believe this 100%, it couldn't possibly just be lazy reporting."

Alternative

[gumpish]

It would be amusing if Netflix et al. opted to take a small hit to their revenue and made their services free to all current customers in PA, thus denying the state the taxes they projected.

Some do

[rsilvergun]

some don't. See, the world is complicated like that. Go watch some speeches from Bernie Sanders on progressivism. Folks like him, Barry Obama & even Hilary are getting stuff done. There's 40 years of regressive policies by Regan et al and billions were spent making that happen. You're not going to change that by pouting about the opportunists among the Democrats.

And nice straw man ya got there. Shame if anything were to happen to him...