Wisconsin will collect sales taxes on Internet downloads of music, games, books, ring tones and other video entertainment – a decision that angers some who will find the 5% tax added to their credit-card bills after Oct. 1.
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The change will require vendors to add the tax when the product is sold and remit it to the state treasury. One of the most popular sellers of songs, CDs and other digital products, iTunes, already collects sales taxes on those sales for states that charge it, said Susan Lundgren, a spokeswoman for Apple.It is expected to cost Wisconsin consumers about $6.7 million a year – a number that suggests it’s a $134 million annual industry here. Also, national experts estimate that downloads are growing by as much as 20% a year, which means the amount of sales tax in that area will grow substantially.
Doyle has been fighting for the change for years. He and other state officials say it is a matter of fairness: Internet vendors shouldn’t have a tax-exempt advantage over Wisconsin’s brick-and-mortar retail stores.
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But Republican Rep. Jeff Fitzgerald of Horicon said the tax on digital products will be charged on many non-entertainment products.“This new tax affects far more than kids downloading songs; it raises costs on all types of digital media from photos to clip art to computer games,” said Fitzgerald, who voted against the tax-increase package. “Graphic artists, photographers, printers and Web designers just saw their costs go up for producing content.”
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But Armata and others said they don’t want to self-report what they owe in sales taxes on downloads or get a notice from state tax collectors saying they owe a specific amount in unpaid sales taxes.
The pr0n industry is scared of this in New York. NC is considering it, too.
Remember years ago when there were proposals to tax each email you sent? Now we have to worry that Interwebitube illiterate pols will just make email illegal.
Found by Brother Uncle Don
Just another reason to pirate digital media. Thanks bozos!
Who’s going to pay for this attempt at recover but us? How many of us have ordered a big ticket item from Amazon to avoid a 9% sales tax? Yes I know on the state returns you’re suppose to list it, but honestly what percentage of people do. The states are desperate and are going for every penny of revenue they can grab. They don’t give a damn if it’s a regressive tax, they need cash today. My state is adding an odometer tax on top of the regular fuel tax. They’re afraid the hand full of hybrids are cheating them on road tax.
Welcome to the 21st century
Since it is digital you can just say you are in a different state when you make the purchase…
Let’s see. The asses just passed an economic “stimulus”, and similar asses are thinking up ways of charging people MORE money when they buy things. Duh. Here in Kalifornia, you are supposed to declare all of the items you purchase from out of state so they can collect sales tax when you file your income tax. AND they raised the sales tax to 9.25%. No,no no. This is NO dis-incentive to spend money, not at all. Dumb fucks. I will be keeping all of my money from now on, since I have everything I need, except for food. That’s taxed next, unless you are an illegal alien or on welfare, of course. Country is off the rails, and we are in Depression. The US is failing day by day. Fun to watch, if you have your “stuff”. If you know what I mean.
In the state of California, if we buy stuff out of state, I was told we’re still supposed to pay CA sales tax anyway. I don’t know anyone outside of my employer who does.
I wonder if this current California law applies to digital stuff too?
Check your state’s tax laws you may be surprise that you have to pay tax on out of state purchases anyway.
In Oklahoma there’s a law passed in the 1930′s that required you to pay standard sales tax rates regardless of where you bought it, called a Use Tax. Now they’re enforcing it because its extra revenue in these tough times.
Huh. I’m surprised that the People’s Republic of Minnesota wasn’t one of the first on board with this one. Won’t be long I suppose.
Everyone wants to drive – nobody wants to pay for roads.
Everyone cries about local stores going out of business – yet the same people buy online to save a dollar, or to avoid sales tax.
None of you would buy something made in the USA if you can buy a Chinese item for dollar less.
Screw people like that!
Now, actually I use the internet to find small American shops and craftsman; I pay a premium, sure, but the customer service, durability and quality is leagues higher, and if something is in need of repair, I know exactly where to send it. I mean, really, just -try- finding an American made fleece jacket in a brick and mortar. I don’t have weeks to waste wandering through retail wastelands. . .
This plan strikes me as another Great American Boondoggle. OK, let’s kill a nascent industry, that many people can themselves participate in (i.e. J. Coultan selling his songs online, ect.) by ladling sales tax on top of something that is arguably more akin to a service. And let’s do that when a free and un-taxable alternative (BT) is available to everyone!
We really are lead by dumb fucks, aren’t we?
[Yes... yes we are. - ed.]
I don’t care. I don’t have money to buy stuff anyway. This is a tax on the rich. Good for them!
PS: I don’t care about high gas prices either. I’m broke.
Why, back in my day high gas prices didn’t matter because you walked!
Now, get off my lawn!
The internet is great because if you live out in the boonies you still get a great selection without having to drive a long way.
Notice that most of the states that have this, excluding the ticket republics of D.C. and Jersey, are ones with huge volumes of rural land.
If this makes money for these states an internet sales tax is not far behind.
#5 Thank god you said assess and not monkeys.
#11 Yet you have internet access. Or do you want to tell us you get that for free?
#14, ‘dro,
Isn’t the internet free in Cuba?
#9, Get Real is correct. We all demand these services then refuse to support them.
I would like to see every on-line purchase taxed a nominal 5%. This tax would then be sent to the purchaser’s State, according to the delivery address for products and the ISP address for digital downloads.
There is no need to burden the State or the tax distributor with the names or specific addresses for each individual purchase.
Look at it as paying your responsible share of the National Debt. Oopps, my bad, I forgot. The right wing nuts and Leibermans idea of being responsible only applies to others.
# 16 Ralph, the School Bus Driver said, “This tax would then be sent to the purchaser’s State, according to the delivery address for products and the ISP address for digital downloads.”
And for those downloads out of country?
Florida has been taxing out of state Internet sales for years, but they haven’t started taxing downloads yet. Probably not savvy enough to realize that downloads are sales too.
There should be no tax on illegal downloads because there was no sale. Like Al Capone though, every illegal download creates taxable income and failure to list and pay that income is a tax violation.
All your stuff are belong to us.
Come to Canada where Canadians love to pay taxes
Provincial Sales Tax (PST) , Federal sales tax (GST) all to pay a host of useless cancer of bureaucrats.
You will get your taste with Mr. Obama
Here in Manitoba a poor sick person spent over 35 hours waiting patiently in the emergency ward of the major hospital – died – and finally when the inquest comes all the facts are “irrelevant”