Pennsylvania To Apply 6% 'Netflix Tax' (allflicks.net) 271
An anonymous reader writes: Governor Tom Wolf of Pennsylvania has signed into law a new revenue package that will require residents to pay a 6% sales tax on their streaming subscriptions. AllFlicks reports: "Though the term 'Netflix tax' has become popular, laws like this don't just affect Netflix -- they also affect competitors like Hulu and HBO Now. App purchases and ebooks are also affected. They recently decided on a hefty $31.5 billion budget, and they came up $1.3 billion short of paying for it. The government is trying to close that funding gap, and streaming subscribers are being stuck with the bill." Magazine and newspaper subscriptions, as well as digital versions of the Bible, will be exempt from the digital downloads tax, reports CBS Local News in Pittsburgh.
any proxy sales soar (Score:5, Insightful)
...get your vpn proxy now
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So buy a prepaid card in New York. That's how I paid for Netflix the first time.
Re:any proxy sales soar (Score:5, Insightful)
Netflix: "Fuck off, we're not in your taxing jurisdiction."
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I imagine they co-locate content on the premises of cable operators in PA. And, barring that, they'll probably be absorbed someday by Comcast - headquartered in Philadelphia - if Comcast has anything to say about it.
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Netflix needs to accept Bitcoins.
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Verizon and Comcast will be more than happy to provide spyware to the state to make sure people pay.
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Then change your billing address to out of state. It doesn't even have to be a real address.
That's the joy of electronic statements.
And the CC companies don't care.
You can change your billing address out of country if you want. Don't have to live there.
"Why?" "Making a purchase that needs to match billing address.", though most don't even ask that; just "temporary or permanent?"
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Huge companies do it because it is not illegal. So why should it be illegal for us?
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Re:any proxy sales soar (Score:5, Informative)
Watch that...
Not only can you get sued for pirating digital content, but now pirating can be considered a form of tax evasion too.
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It's simple.
The MPAA and RIAA consider a pirated copy a "lost sale". This is how they come up with those incredible numbers of dollars lost due to piracy.
So, downloading a film not only cost the distributors money (putting arguments over whether the downloader would have otherwise paid for it aside) - but also the government, which lost out on what would have been a taxable sale. So if you live in Pennsylvania, downloading a copy of "Batman vs. Superman" is not only is a lost sale, but you are evading pay
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So, downloading a film not only cost the distributors money (putting arguments over whether the downloader would have otherwise paid for it aside) - but also the government, which lost out on what would have been a taxable sale. So if you live in Pennsylvania, downloading a copy of "Batman vs. Superman" is not only is a lost sale, but you are evading paying any taxes due on the now-lost purchase. In other words: even though you downloaded it for "free", it does have a dollar value attached to it. So, to the government, you owe taxes on that download.
Didn't the FBI get Dillinger the same way?
Re: any proxy sales soar (Score:5, Informative)
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So then... the PA GOP doesn't swear loyalty to that talking head that's against any kind of tax increase what so ever. (Norquist)
As I financial conservative, I find that terribly moronic (the Norquist BS).
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Same tax bill also includes a substantial hike on tobacco products (except for cigars). And a 40% on all vaping products. Plus a 40% inventory tax on all vaping products in vaping stores. Payable within 90 days, or fines/prison. Which is scheduled to drive at least 300 small businesses out of business. Criminal fines and up to 30 days or 5 years in prison if you buy out of
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For the most part, old people don't vape, and old people don't use Netflix. So it is a tax on younger people. Easy to get through in the increasingly geriatric Pennsylvania.
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But you can change your billing address to anything you want. Out of state, out of country. The address doesn't even need to really exist.
Just set up electronic statements, and call to change your address as often as you want.
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"But you can change your billing address to anything you want."
Yes, you can commit fraud Virginia.
Start taxing religions (Score:3, Interesting)
Start taxing religions with their mega churches, it is nothing but a business.
Religious Exemption (Score:5, Funny)
I watch Netflix religiously, surely that is cause for an exemption if the Bible gets one.
Re:Religious Exemption (Score:5, Insightful)
No one should've modded you down!
This law is a flagrant F.U. to the separation of church and state...
"Digital versions of the Bible will be exempt from the digital downloads tax."
If they wanted an exemption that would do society some good, thye should exempt textbooks, but then kids might get exposed to more of that heretical "science."
Re:Religious Exemption (Score:5, Insightful)
I was just going to say, that doesn't sound fair. What about digital versions of the Talmud or the Koran or the Bhagavad-Vita?
Re:Religious Exemption (Score:5, Informative)
Except there does not appear to actually be such an exemption. It appears to have been made up, probably to generate outrage and hence clicks.
Here [pa.gov] is what the state says the new changes are. It includes 'e-books and otherwise taxable printed matter'. It does not mention bibles anywhere.
So, bibles must not be 'otherwise taxable printed matter', right? Nope. Here [pa.gov] is the list of what is taxable. The list starts on page 14. First item on the list is 'Books', and right under the heading is this statement. "Tax is imposed on books, stationery and stationery supplies, including Bibles and religious publications sold by religious groups."
Oh, and further down the list we find that textbooks are NON-TAXABLE.
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This law is a flagrant F.U. to the separation of church and state... "Digital versions of the Bible will be exempt from the digital downloads tax."
If they wanted an exemption that would do society some good, thye should exempt textbooks, but then kids might get exposed to more of that heretical "science."
The summary says the Bible and the law says religious organizations, which includes churches. Textbooks are also excluded. Essentially the summary was flamebait and you fell for it. Way to show your biases though :-) If you're interested in facts as opposed to your rant here are the exemptions:
There are a few exemptions to the tax. Under current state tax laws, textbooks sales are tax-exempt. That same exemption applies for digital textbooks purchased from or through accredited schools. Purchases made by charitable organizations, volunteer fire companies, religious organizations and nonprofit education institutions won't need to pay the sales tax, either. And newspaper and magazine subscriptions sales are tax-free, too.
Source: http://lancasteronline.com/new... [lancasteronline.com]
"Streaming" Tax (Score:3)
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"So will YouTube and Twich be affected? "
I'm sure anyone who pays youtube to watch/rent a movie would be subject to the tax. They would also be subject to the tax if they watch free videos. Because 6% of zero is.... carry the one.... Um... zero.
Yay for regressive taxes! (Score:5, Insightful)
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You are correct that Netflix, et al are not essentials. However, they're economic alternatives to a high cable bill. The poor are (hopefully) more likely to pick one or two services like Netflix or H
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People don't understand *why* taxing the poor and middle-class is bad, though.
6% of 120/year? $7.20, okay, sure, nothing. 4.8 million households? $34 million. Well, there goes (theoretical maximum) 2,345 minimum-wage jobs.
How's that work?
There are only so many dollars of income every year. The Fed prints money, the bank loans dollars into existence, you buy things, and part of your money is divvied up as wages. Raising the costs a consumer pays means a bigger chunk of his money gets taken when he
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Rich don't make jobs, and jobs don't come from businesses. Businesses employ people as an incidental matter of operation: those factories, cash registers, and fork lifts aren't going to run themselves.
When you open a small business, you're competing for limited resource. The economy grows each year: more people, more technology. More people means more flat buying power (due to more available labor and monetary growth--more money put into the system to keep up, backed by more labor to produce). More
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For those of you playing at home those are taxes that disproportionately impact the poor, working poor and (in this case) working class. They're worth double points because not only do you get to use money to fund tax cuts on the 1% but the people you tax get angry and start demanding tax cuts; which you can oblige with even _more_ tax cuts for the 1%. Uncle Rove calls this "Starve the Beast".
I doubt the poor stream off Netflix.
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Democrats don't really care about the poor. They care about power, control and expanding their empire (bigger government). One way to lock on to that power is to keep people poor and keep promising them services from the bigger government. Grow your empire and keep people dependent on it to keep voting you back in power. If you actually cared about poor people, you'd be looking at making them self sufficient and not dependent on government services.
Some do (Score:4, Informative)
And nice straw man ya got there. Shame if anything were to happen to him...
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They care about power, control and expanding their empire (bigger government).
This used to be the case in the times of LBJ, but in the Carter, Clinton and Obama administrations the size of the federal government as % of GDP went down. In contrast it went up with Reagan, Bush Sr and Bush Jr.
Obama's budgets as % of GDP have been smaller than those of the sainted Ronald Reagan.
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a) They keep increasing school budges, especially to poor and undeserved areas. WRONG
b) They keep increasing the minimum wage to encourage people to feel productive and appreciated in the labor force as well as be able to afford a living. WRONG
c) Require them to work for free or loose the already paltry safety net that ensures they don't end up hungry and homeless. DING DING DING DING
Long Prison sentence for minor offenses are also a p
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Funny how you conveniently forget that both houses in PA are GOP. The governor just *signs* the laws, he doesn't write them you know.
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I assume collection will be self reported (Score:2)
If that is the case, I don't see the state of PA being able to recoup much of that $1.3 billion budget shortfall.
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That's why c
Only the Bible? (Score:2, Interesting)
From TFA: "Magazine and newspaper subscriptions, as well as digital versions of the Bible, will be exempt from the digital downloads tax."
What... the Torah, Quran, and Bhagavad Gita and hundreds of others need not apply? Nice lawsuit trolling there.
Re:Only the Bible? (Score:4, Insightful)
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I guess you failed to notice that as I hadn't seen the text of the original bill, I omitted mentioning whether it was the lawmakers or the reporters who were doing the trolling.
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Seriously? You expect us to believe that when you said 'nice lawsuit trolling' you were maybe referring to the reporter? You saw something that fit in nicely with your narrow world view so you believed it without doing any checking to see if it was true. When it was pointed out that the statement was in fact false you deny that you ever believed it.
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There is no Bible exemption. There's an exemption for purchases by religious organizations (and charities, accredited educational institutions, and volunteer firefighting organizations), which doesn't explicitly mention one religion over another or prefer a religious organization over the Red Cross, Planned Parenthood, or UNICEF.
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Not lawsuit trolling, just trolling by whatever idiot wrote that. In the Retailers Information Guide [pa.gov] to what is taxable is this statement (page 14).
Tax is imposed on books, stationery and stationery supplies, including Bibles and religious publications sold by religious groups. (emphasis mine)
And the summary [pa.gov] of the new taxes simply says it applies to 'e-books and otherwise taxable printed material'. Not a single mention of 'Bibles' anywhere.
This is just stupid (Score:2)
From TFA: "Magazine and newspaper subscriptions, as well as digital versions of the Bible, will be exempt from the digital downloads tax."
What... the Torah, Quran, and Bhagavad Gita and hundreds of others need not apply? Nice lawsuit trolling there.
Pretty sure this is right out of the gates, unconstitutional. Doesn't equal protection apply here? Calling out the bible specifically and not other religious texts is financial discrimination against everybody who doesn't believe in zombie jebuz on a stick.
Ok (Score:5, Insightful)
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Sounds kinda illegal (Score:5, Informative)
Doesn't this bump into the Internet Tax Freedom Act and the Trade Facilitation and Trade Enforcement Act of 2015?
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Doesn't this bump into the Internet Tax Freedom Act and the Trade Facilitation and Trade Enforcement Act of 2015?
Yes, this won't stand.
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In PA, sales tax also applies to services. Netflix provides a service. They are taxing the service, not the subscriber's access to such service.
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The Wolf of Netflix (Score:2)
Compressed air tax (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Compressed air tax (Score:5, Funny)
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Some cities in PA also have an Occupation Privilege Tax [custhelp.com].
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Yep, I think its like $20 off your first paycheck only...
I think the idea, right or wrong, was to tax out of area people coming in for jobs then leaving and paying income taxes to other areas. never quite made sense to me .
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People scream for, and vote for, more government. Here is another delivery of the more government they've demanded.
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It's no different than most items that are sold from a vending machine or anywhere else where sales tax is already included in the price. Instead of the retailer making $.25 off an air compressor use they make $.235 and the other $.015 gets remitted to the state as part of the 6% state sales tax.
Full Text (Score:5, Informative)
Full text of enacted bill.
FULL TITLE: Act 84 of 2016
EXPLANATION: http://www.revenue.pa.gov/Gene... [pa.gov]
SUMMARY:
http://www.revenue.pa.gov/Gene... [pa.gov]
FULL TEXT:
http://www.legis.state.pa.us/c... [state.pa.us]
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WHAT ARE THE EDITORS EVEN DOING?!
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Piracy in trouble? (Score:2)
Why not just raise the income tax? (Score:2)
Alternative (Score:5, Funny)
It would be amusing if Netflix et al. opted to take a small hit to their revenue and made their services free to all current customers in PA, thus denying the state the taxes they projected.
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Besides the taxes aren't hitting Netflix, they're hitting us the consumers.
in the end it's going to be just another line on the bill every month.
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It would be amusing if Netflix et al. opted to take a small hit to their revenue and made their services free to all current customers in PA, thus denying the state the taxes they projected.
I don't think it matters, because they can't really make Netflix pay them a nickel if that company has no physical presence in PA.
Most likely what they will do is make it the consumer's responsibility to report it on their yearly taxes, and pay it then themselves. If PA taxpayers are like those in other states, almost nobody will do this [cpapracticeadvisor.com], so the state still won't get their taxes. In fact, this is already the situation in most states, so this is really just a story about PA jumping on the (already heavily-
Interesting... (Score:2)
Pennsylvania long the Texas of the East....no more (Score:2)
Pennsylvania long the Texas of the East....is fast joining it's northeastern neighbors and becoming more and more like NY and Connecticut. Still not as bad as Connecticut though.
As for Netflix tax, remember, I already pay a tax on cable internet. There are supposed to be regulations that ensure anti-competitive behavior. But the Commonwealth of PA never acts on them. See, we pay taxes in exchange for certain responsibilities and actions on the part of the government. Problem is, we don't receive those.
I s
Why exempt the bible ? (Score:3)
Are they also exempting other religious texts ? Is this not a violation of the separation of church and state ? Why not ?
So freaking what? (Score:2)
Streaming Services are by definition a Service. Other Services in the state are taxed at 6%. Streaming services can be considered a Luxury item, nobody needs netflix to live. You won't die without it.
the Vaping taxes are essentially the same thing. You don't need to vape. It has health issues just like regular smoking. Kids pick it up as being "cool". Tax it like cigarettes..boom done. I can think of about 5 Vape stores in my town, why on God's green earth do we need 5 in small town? Survival of th
OK with me (Score:2)
As long as they don't tax torrents, I'm OK.
Episode 5 (Score:2)
WTF PA? (Score:5, Insightful)
Glad to see the separation of church and state is alive in well in the U S of A!!!
"...digital versions of the Bible will be exempt from the digital downloads tax"
If they wanted an exemption that would do society some good, they should exempt textbooks, but then kids might get exposed to more of that heretical "science."
Re: WTF PA? (Score:5, Insightful)
There's that, and I am curious how they're collecting sales taxes from Netflix given that Netflix likely doesn't have a presence there.
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There's that, and I am curious how they're collecting sales taxes from Netflix given that Netflix likely doesn't have a presence there.
Most likely they are just making it the resident's responsibility to report that on their yearly taxes and pay it appropriately. Lots of states (like mine) are doing that with online shopping now too.
Re:WTF PA? (Score:5, Informative)
The summary is terrible.
Textbooks purchased from or through accredited schools are exempted. The Bible is not specifically exempted, but purchases by qualified charitable organizations, volunteer fire companies, religious organizations and nonprofit educational institutions are unless used in an unrelated business capacity--there's no particular preference for religious organizations over other social nonprofits, and nothing singling out particular religions.
The tax is not specifically on streaming video. It extends the state's 6% sales tax to online purchases--streaming video is included, as are video downloads, streaming and downloaded audio, and other online purchases like ebooks, apps, games, e-greeting cards, etc.
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Thank you, this is why I come to /.
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Copyright on the Bible (Score:2)
Most translations of the Bible into contemporary English are copyrighted and not free cultural works, with the exception of the World English Bible.
Re: WTF PA? (Score:2)
Read Jefferson's Virginia declaration of religious freedom which definitely influenced Madison's first amendment separation clause.
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Unless you can read the original, you have no real reason to trust it. You're still going through the same sort of highly fallible human filter with their own bias to bring to the table.
The idea that a translation of a 2000 year old book can be "owned" is a little obscene. Either the translation process is formalized enough and predictable enough, or the result is made up garbage.
Although that reminds me of how some rogue fan translations are better than the official versions.
Re: Why the exemptions? (Score:2, Informative)
Not so fast. What actually constitutes the original?
Some of the books in the Old Testament date back over 2,500 years. There's solid archaeological evidence to support this. But the original texts almost certainly don't exist anymore. The origins aren't entirely certain, even. One hypothesis is that the Pentateuch is comprised of texts from scrolls that were compiled from older documents during the Babylonian Exile. Also, what constitutes the original? Is it the earlier texts that were compiled to create th
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Well, this IS veering off-topic, but...
What actually constitutes the original?
The "original" is probably lost forever, true. But unimportant. We don't have the autograph copies of Homer's Odyssey and Iliad, Caesar's Gallic Wars, or any other ancient document, either, but there's no real dispute about what they say.
The New Testament, on the other hand, is the best-attributed document from antiquity, comparable in size to the writings of Homer, with 100x the documentary evidence. The work in the 19th, 20th, a
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Either the translation process is formalized enough and predictable enough, or the result is made up garbage.
This, kids, is what they're talking about when they say, "False dichotomy".
(The poster evidently speaks no other languages and thus has never done any translation work.)
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An Internet company in PA? That is news.
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Sure seems to me that a special exemption for one particular work of fiction is a clear violation of separation of church and state.
There's no Bible exemption in the law. It does exempt purchases made by religious organizations (as well as charities, accredited educational institutions, and volunteer firefighting organizations), but there's no preference for a particular religion or for religious nonprofits over, say, the Red Cross, Greenpeace, or Planned Parenthood.
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steaming video
Your Freudian slip is showing.
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PA's liquor laws mainly hurt border town grocery and convenience stores. This includes the entire city of Philadelphia, so close to NJ that even the carless can take local buses and trains over the border without much effort.
The liquor laws also hurt the poor (surprise!) because if you don't have a car, it's a pretty big sacrifice to go to the distributor and haul 24 bottles of beer home. So then you have to buy at a bar with the standard inflated bar prices. Meanwhile in the rest of the country, integra
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That is slowwwwly changing. I can go into my local grocery store now and actually by beer. I still have to pay for it at a special register. But it's a step in the right direction.
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What's the real difference between buying a membership somewhere in state and paying 6%, and paying for 6% tax for your Netflix membership.
This is all just making a mountain out of a molehill.