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California Seeks To Tax Rocket Launches, Which Are Already Taxed (arstechnica.com)
The state of California is looking into taxing its thriving rocket industry. The Franchise Tax Board has issued a proposed regulation for public comment that would require companies that launch spacecraft to pay a tax based upon "mileage" traveled by that spacecraft from California. Ars Technica reports: The proposal says that California-based companies that launch spacecraft will have to pay a tax based upon "mileage" traveled by that spacecraft from California. (No, we're not exactly sure what this means, either). The proposed regulations were first reported by the San Francisco Chronicle, and Thomas Lo Grossman, a tax attorney at the Franchise Tax Board, told the newspaper that the rules are designed to mirror the ways taxes are levied on terrestrial transportation and logistics firms operating in California, like trucking or train companies. The tax board is seeking public input from now until June 16, when it is expected to vote on the proposed tax. The federal government already has its own taxes for commercial space companies, and until now no other state has proposed taxing commercial spaceflight. In fact most other states, including places like Florida, Texas, and Georgia, offer launch providers tax incentives to move business into their areas.
Umm bad example you do realize that movies were originally made in NJ then due to patents and taxes moved to CA?
Amazing how nobody bothers to read the actual regulation, not even the article authors ("we're not exactly sure what that means either").
If I understand the actual regulation correctly:
For every launch from California, they take the number of miles traveled within the state of California and divide this by the total number of miles from launch to separation. This is one factor in the calculation, weighted at 80%.
Another factor, weighted by 20%, is the number of launches from California divided by the number of launches in total for that contract. That means that if you have one expensive launch from Texas and one cheap launch from California, under the same contract, California will take a disproportionate amount of tax because they will consider 50% of the total contract value for the "departure factor" part.
The regulation has an example with numbers. It looks like they want companies to launch high value missions from California and cheaper missions from elsewhere, since the "departure factor" appears to be the dominant factor in the calculation. And they want California launches to take place as close to the border as possible, minimizing distance traveled over the state.
Right, just like Hollywood closed and now all movies are made in Vancouver.
You'd be amazed at the number of American block busters not even made on the continent let alone Vancouver or California. Your attempt at sarcasm fails due to it actually being very real. The industry is quite sensitive to tax breaks, and while Hollywood may be the heart of the industry, the production and a lot of the dollars actually go elsewhere.
That said it was funny seeing someone in Australia install yellow coverings on all our black traffic lights in a city to try and make the country look more like America.
NC lost numerous concerts, conferences, NCAA tournaments and other large events due directly to HB-2. None of that counts the individual people who decided not to vacation here. It was easily $1 Billion in economic activity lost. Easily. The NCAA tournament (which UNC won!) would have been held in NC except for, yep, HB-2.
No impact at all?
California ranks 17th in the US in terms of per capita GDP. Given its favorable location and history, that's a piss poor performance. It's actually below average for states in the West.
Conservatives like roads; too bad that California's are so shitty. Conservatives also like schools and fire departments, but are not so fond of firemen that make nearly half a million dollars a year.
The bill doesn't affect gays or lesbians at all. Lumping together gays, lesbians, and transgender people just because our identities have "something to do with sex" is a sign of ignorance and stupidity.
California's infrastructure is falling apart, California's public finances are a train wreck, it is one of the worst state in terms of income inequality, has some of the highest poverty rates and per-capita welfare spending, its schools are near the bottom, and citizens are fleeing the state, while a small number of wealthy people live in enclaves and run the place. That's how banana republics and leftist shitholes operate.
You're on to something. California needs to start taxing farts, belches, democrats speaking, and China
You joke, but we just passed a cow fart tax here:
Cow Fart Tax