Wisconsin Governor Proposing Tax On Downloads

Christopher Reimer writes "Ars Technica is reporting that the Wisconsin's governor is proposing a tax for downloads. From the article: 'Wisconsin's Democratic governor thinks it's not fair that tangible items get taxed while downloads, like music, ebooks, software, etc., go completely untaxed. So, he proposes to rectify the situation by having Wisconsin's 5% state sales tax apply to Internet downloads.'"

Great!

[infinite9]

Now p2p users can be charged with tax evasion!

Yea Right.

[squatex]

That should be real easy to enforce.

Psh, politicians.

[RootsLINUX]

Is this really an important and pressing matter for the governor to concern himself with? Shouldn't he be more focused on.....I don't know, making more cheese? >_>

Sounds great!

[Cytlid]

That means I get a refund for uploads, right?

Please pay tax

[mrpuffypants]

Thank you for loading this page to view the comments. Please send $1.00 to the Wisconsin Tax office for your GET request, which now applies under the new downloading law.

Thank You.

-The Wisconsin "We make the laws, you pay for them" Government

Minnesotan here.

[Anonymous Coward]

ahh, wisconsin. where men are men, and sheep are scared

people pay M$ tax--why not us?

[mojoNYC]

the guv'nor must be thinking 'hmmm, these people *voluntarily* pay a tax to Microsoft, and get very little in return--i'd like to get in on that racket!

Re:IANAL, but.....

[Stanistani]

>IE be a bum

Why don't we keep the whole "browser religious wars" thing out of this topic? :)

Re:5% of what exactly

[east coast]

political suicide i think its called

Nonsense! The Luddites in Wisconsin will see this as a windfall that they should have a cut of. All the governor needs to do is claim that the money raised from this move will be put twords seniors, children or puppies. If anyone tries to stop him they'll be seen as a puppy killer. There will be terror on the streets as old men smash iPods with their canes. He knows his gig.

"You're trying to cut the tax money that pays for my Depends (TM) undergarments? I'll call Matlock!"

Re:Democrats vs. Republicans

[Country_hacker]

Reminds me of a Dave Barry column where he was talking about how we should pay off the national debt. One of the ideas was to connect electrodes to politicians' bodies, then send a jolt through that corresponds to the size of the dept. With a little bit of tweaking the idea could be very effective in keeping tax increases to a minimum. ;-)

Re:Psh, politicians.

[Tsunayoshi]

I grew up in California, and moved here to Virginia after leaving the military...we don't have stupid laws trying to regain lost gas taxes, we have stupid laws about showing your underwear in public:

http://www.cnn.com/2005/LAW/02/09/low.pants.ap/ [cnn.com]

Note this law was shot down in the state Senate after national humiliation...

Re:I've said it once, I'll say it again...

[hurfy]

Man are you ever behind the times...just check with your local telephone co for this one :(

Taxes on the taxes on the surcharges......

Re:Democrats vs. Republicans

[mboverload]

Indeed. We don't need more taxes, we need a government with less wasting.

I'm not for tax cuts, either, but we are paying for stuff any sane person would call bullshit on. For example, in my state the legislature had it's own DMV in the capital building. They said its so whey wouldn't have to wait in line and be harassed by "the people". Assholes.

Re:No, you are NOT taxed enough! Please read:

[jejones]

I hope the parent is moderated up as far as possible, but I am depressed to think that someone thinks of it as funny.

I don't see a problem

[Anonymous Coward]

I will happily give the state 5% of the price of my next apt-get dist-upgrade. Shoot, I'll be generous and make it 10% or even 20%.

Re:Great!

[cdrudge]

No, but then I would be lying.

Fairness my foot.

[Etherwalk]

Oh, yes, I can see how it's a fairness issue. It has nothing to do with a state budget issue. It's completely about fairness.

Say, we should find the highest sales tax in the country and raise the rest of the country's sales tax to that level too. It's only fair.

Don't know if this helps.....

[p.rican]

but it keeps things in perspective for me whenever I read it. This was sent to me some time ago but it still makes me laugh:

Can you imagine working for a company that has a little more than 500 employees and has the following statistics:

* 29 have been accused of spousal abuse

* 7 have been arrested for fraud

* 19 have been accused of writing bad checks

* 117 have directly or indirectly bankrupted at least 2 businesses

* 3 have done time for assault

* 71 cannot get a credit card due to bad credit

* 14 have been arrested on drug-related charges

* 8 have been arrested for shoplifting

* 21 are currently defendants in lawsuits

* 84 have been arrested for drunk driving in the last year

Can you guess which organization this is?

Give up yet?

It's the 535 members of the United States Congress. The same group of idiots that crank out hundreds of new laws each year designed to keep the rest of us in line.

Except marijuana is a dangerous drug

[Anonymous Coward]

It is still very, very addictive and the gateway to other hard drugs like crack and heroin with just one "hit". Do you really think the US needs a nation of drug addicts? Look at the disaster marijuana created in the Netherlands. Soft marijuana laws have created crack and heroin junkies everywhere, large amounts of prostitution, the spread of HIV and an epidemic of robberies. And it causes thousands of cases of lung cancer every year worldwide. Get the facts [whitehousedrugpolicy.gov] before making a suggestion that would enslave our children to this menace.

Re:Democrats vs. Republicans

[nCnt++]

Ah yes, the 80s. I took Reagan's advice, did my patriotic duty, teamed up with MasterCard and tried to single handedly bring this nation out of the recession. You're all welcome.