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Not surprised coming from the state that wants to tax Netflix [0]. Who's in charge of coming up with these technologically-regressive taxes anyway? I guess they

Not surprised coming from the state that wants to tax Netflix [0]. Who's in charge of coming up with these technologically-regressive taxes anyway? I guess they're looking for any way they can to prevent bankruptcy, but these kind of things really rub me the wrong way. [0]: https://www.illinoispolicy.org/illinois-bill-would-expand-chicagos-netflix-tax-statewide/ https://www.illinoispolicy.org/illinois-bill-would-expand-ch...

leereeves 7y ago
What's wrong with taxing Netflix? Internet companies have been able to avoid paying a lot of taxes, but that's not going to last forever.
- akersten 7y ago
  > What's wrong with taxing Netflix? Internet companies have been able to avoid paying a lot of taxes, You're mixing two different concepts here. There is a sales tax that applies to any purchase, which many internet companies did avoid for a while - although now you'll see that Amazon does automatically apply a sales tax on purchases depending on your ZIP. Although it would be more accurate to call it a use tax, since conceptually it's the same tax that you should pay if you had gone and bought the product in another state and brought it back home (although no one does this). The idea is that this tax compensates for the loss of business that a local company may have experienced due to you buying the good out-of-state. In the "tax Netflix" case, it's not a sales tax being proposed (your monthly subscription fee already includes that). It's almost like a vice tax, which is traditionally used to discourage certain behavior (i.e. cigarette tax), except movie theaters in Chicago aren't suddenly going out of business and there's nothing harmful about consuming Netflix. So it's hard to make an honest argument that there is any socially positive reason for this tax, and I can't see a "Netflix tax" as anything other than an opportunistic cash grab by the city. In my book, that's "wrong", but I guess it depends how much latitude you personally believe cities should have in creating arbitrary tax schemes.

leereeves 7y ago

What's wrong with taxing Netflix? Internet companies have been able to avoid paying a lot of taxes, but that's not going to last forever.

akersten 7y ago
> What's wrong with taxing Netflix? Internet companies have been able to avoid paying a lot of taxes, You're mixing two different concepts here. There is a sales tax that applies to any purchase, which many internet companies did avoid for a while - although now you'll see that Amazon does automatically apply a sales tax on purchases depending on your ZIP. Although it would be more accurate to call it a use tax, since conceptually it's the same tax that you should pay if you had gone and bought the product in another state and brought it back home (although no one does this). The idea is that this tax compensates for the loss of business that a local company may have experienced due to you buying the good out-of-state. In the "tax Netflix" case, it's not a sales tax being proposed (your monthly subscription fee already includes that). It's almost like a vice tax, which is traditionally used to discourage certain behavior (i.e. cigarette tax), except movie theaters in Chicago aren't suddenly going out of business and there's nothing harmful about consuming Netflix. So it's hard to make an honest argument that there is any socially positive reason for this tax, and I can't see a "Netflix tax" as anything other than an opportunistic cash grab by the city. In my book, that's "wrong", but I guess it depends how much latitude you personally believe cities should have in creating arbitrary tax schemes.