4 ms·

The Netflix Tax of Chicago: https://www.illinoispolicy.org/chicagos-netflix-tax-revenues-more-than-triple-in-five-years/ https://www.illinoispolicy.org/chicagos

The Netflix Tax of Chicago: https://www.illinoispolicy.org/chicagos-netflix-tax-revenues-more-than-triple-in-five-years/ https://www.illinoispolicy.org/chicagos-netflix-tax-revenues... It is disheartening to hear it's been adopted in more locations.

duped 4y ago
Amusement + sales tax is not a "netflix tax."
- dehrmann 4y ago
  No, but it is oddly specific. Why is a sales tax not enough on its own? Why does entertainment need a specific tax?
  - skrtskrt 4y ago
    Incompetent police forces that constantly lose multibillion dollar lawsuits over use of force and torture, that already have the budget of of a medium sized country don’t pay for themselves.
    - robonerd 4y ago
      "Google shouldn't be regulated by Illinois because police are bad." Did I get that about right? I don't see what police have to do with any of this, it seems like a generic unrelated gripe being roped into the conversation because you don't like Google being regulated for other reasons that, if expressed, probably sound even even lamer than somehow using police malfeasance to justify deregulating a tech corp.
      - skrtskrt 4y ago
        Parent comment is about what Chicago needs its extra taxes for, not about the Illinois biometrics regulation at all. Not once have I expressed an opinion about Google or the biometric regulation.
        robonerd 4y ago
        Again, police being shitty have nothing to do with regulation and taxation of tech corps.
        skrtskrt 4y ago
        The thread is not about a tech corp specific tax it’s about why Chicago feels it needs an entertainment tax on top of all the taxes it already has. If you live in Chicago it’s quite obvious how tax dollars and 10,000 cops with their thumb up their ass are related. They’re >40% of the city budget.
        robonerd 4y ago
        You could levy this argument against literally any tax Chicago institutes.
  - duped 4y ago
    It's actually the opposite of specific, it's more that the local courts and regulators agreed that the tax applies to streaming services including Netflix. The classic use of an amusement tax is to draw revenue from tourists/visitors and particular business activities like gambling/sporting events in addition to a sales tax. But this is kind of missing the point, Illinois is not bankrupt and the money from this court case doesn't go to the state. It's punitive to prevent businesses from wholesale collection of biometric information without the consent of the citizens of Illinois. Facebook was notably punished just a few years ago for the same thing. I wish more states flexed their regulatory power on companies like Google for things like this. It makes the country a better place.
    - lotsofpulp 4y ago
      Illinois might not be legally bankrupt, but they certainly have every incentive to try to grab money from whoever they can. The debt per taxpayer numbers for Chicago and the state are multiple standard deviations above the mean. https://www.truthinaccounting.org/news/detail/financial-state-of-the-cities-2022 https://www.truthinaccounting.org/news/detail/financial-stat... https://www.truthinaccounting.org/news/detail/financial-state-of-the-states-2021 https://www.truthinaccounting.org/news/detail/financial-stat...
  - dylan604 4y ago
    A local town near me is home to a very well known privately owned sports franchise where the citizens passed a tax to help fund the stadium this private team owns/operates. The tax was created as an entertainment tax so all of the hotels and rental cars have an extra line item to cover this tax.
  - vkou 4y ago
    Every sales tax I've ever interacted with has a long list of different categories of things that are included, excluded, or taxed at different rates.

duped 4y ago

Amusement + sales tax is not a "netflix tax."

dehrmann 4y ago
No, but it is oddly specific. Why is a sales tax not enough on its own? Why does entertainment need a specific tax?
- skrtskrt 4y ago
  Incompetent police forces that constantly lose multibillion dollar lawsuits over use of force and torture, that already have the budget of of a medium sized country don’t pay for themselves.
  - robonerd 4y ago
    "Google shouldn't be regulated by Illinois because police are bad." Did I get that about right? I don't see what police have to do with any of this, it seems like a generic unrelated gripe being roped into the conversation because you don't like Google being regulated for other reasons that, if expressed, probably sound even even lamer than somehow using police malfeasance to justify deregulating a tech corp.
    - skrtskrt 4y ago
      Parent comment is about what Chicago needs its extra taxes for, not about the Illinois biometrics regulation at all. Not once have I expressed an opinion about Google or the biometric regulation.
      - robonerd 4y ago
        Again, police being shitty have nothing to do with regulation and taxation of tech corps.
        skrtskrt 4y ago
        The thread is not about a tech corp specific tax it’s about why Chicago feels it needs an entertainment tax on top of all the taxes it already has. If you live in Chicago it’s quite obvious how tax dollars and 10,000 cops with their thumb up their ass are related. They’re >40% of the city budget.
        robonerd 4y ago
        You could levy this argument against literally any tax Chicago institutes.
- duped 4y ago
  It's actually the opposite of specific, it's more that the local courts and regulators agreed that the tax applies to streaming services including Netflix. The classic use of an amusement tax is to draw revenue from tourists/visitors and particular business activities like gambling/sporting events in addition to a sales tax. But this is kind of missing the point, Illinois is not bankrupt and the money from this court case doesn't go to the state. It's punitive to prevent businesses from wholesale collection of biometric information without the consent of the citizens of Illinois. Facebook was notably punished just a few years ago for the same thing. I wish more states flexed their regulatory power on companies like Google for things like this. It makes the country a better place.
  - lotsofpulp 4y ago
    Illinois might not be legally bankrupt, but they certainly have every incentive to try to grab money from whoever they can. The debt per taxpayer numbers for Chicago and the state are multiple standard deviations above the mean. https://www.truthinaccounting.org/news/detail/financial-state-of-the-cities-2022 https://www.truthinaccounting.org/news/detail/financial-stat... https://www.truthinaccounting.org/news/detail/financial-state-of-the-states-2021 https://www.truthinaccounting.org/news/detail/financial-stat...
- dylan604 4y ago
  A local town near me is home to a very well known privately owned sports franchise where the citizens passed a tax to help fund the stadium this private team owns/operates. The tax was created as an entertainment tax so all of the hotels and rental cars have an extra line item to cover this tax.
- vkou 4y ago
  Every sales tax I've ever interacted with has a long list of different categories of things that are included, excluded, or taxed at different rates.