Leave it to Chicago Liberals to figure out a new tax on nothing.
These are the same Liberals who thought up the Tennis Shoe Tax. Why? To pay for the recreation centers for “the poor kids.” So what kids will be paying for their own rec center when they BUY TENNIS SHOES! The city expected to earn $2 million from the new tax.
And now Chicagoans will have another tax to look forward to as noted in the Chicago Tribune:
Chicagoans will soon be hit with a “cloud tax” for digital entertainment services — that’s 9 percent added onto streaming services such as Netflix and Spotify.
Netflix’s streaming plans range from $7.99 to $11.99, while Spotify’s premium service costs $9.99 a month. The city would collect 9 percent from those plans monthly.
In total, the city expects it will collect $12 million a year from the tax.
The city enacted the change in the amusement tax on Wednesday but won’t begin collecting until Sept. 1 in order to allow the affected businesses time to make changes.
The city’s amusement tax isn’t anything new. Chicagoans pay the tax for everything from going to the movies, seeing a play or concert, or attending a basketball game. A citywide audit, in which “online services” is listed, prompted the change to add digital entertainment to the list of city amusements.
The change to the city’s amusement tax will affect “any paid television programming” as well as “electronically delivered music,” according to a city Department of Finance amusement tax ruling.
The city says the change will allow for a more uniform way to apply taxes on digital services.Mayoral spokeswoman Elizabeth Langsdorf said in a statement:
“These two rulings are consistent with the city’s current tax laws and are not an expansion of the laws. These ensure that city taxation is uniformly and fairly applied and that businesses are given clear guidance on the applicability of the city’s tax laws to their operations, and they clarify that the amusement tax and personal property lease tax apply to digital services.”
Shouldn’t a government entity have to explain how it helps, when it decides to tax?
The tax may be a way to make up for the loss of sales tax revenue from storefronts that offered services that have been replaced by streaming services. Using this logic, why aren’t they taxing email? After all, it replaced conventional mail.
