So... What exactly is the cost to government being justified here? Usually a tax is to pay for something, in this case it seems to be just "hey we want some of that money, give us some". What the fuck.
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“Netflix tax” may be coming soon to your bill
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Re: “Netflix tax” may be coming soon to your bill
#32So... What exactly is the cost to government being justified here? Usually a tax is to pay for something, in this case it seems to be just "hey we want some of that money, give us some". What the fuck.
As long as the money is not earmarked for a certain expense, I assume it is used for the general running of the local government. Like police, fire, sanitation, ect. Local government provides a lot of essential services.
Re: “Netflix tax” may be coming soon to your bill
#33So... What exactly is the cost to government being justified here? Usually a tax is to pay for something, in this case it seems to be just "hey we want some of that money, give us some". What the fuck.
I think it's more like "We can't cover our costs with current tax revenue, let's increase tax revenue."
Re: “Netflix tax” may be coming soon to your bill
#34If this is the best answer the cable company lobby could come up with, Netflix has already won.
In the USA maybe, in the rest of the world Netflix is a joke.
How presumptuous of you to speak in the name of the rest of the world. I'm very happy with my subscription from Romania. It's actually more comfortable than pirating!
Re: “Netflix tax” may be coming soon to your bill
#35[deleted]
Re: “Netflix tax” may be coming soon to your bill
#36Earlier quoted context omitted.
In the USA maybe, in the rest of the world Netflix is a joke.
Care to elaborate? I work in Spain which got Netflix earlier this year and literally everyone in my office got a subscription.
Okay. I didnt expect that. Maybe they're stepping up their game ^^
Do they have a decent catalogue in Spain? and they have the series translated in Spanish as well?
Re: “Netflix tax” may be coming soon to your bill
#37I see a lot of comments here in shock and disbelief. In the spirit of at least trying to consider the most charitable view if the events I would like to offer my justification for what happens.
Municipalities tax consumption on their territory. By contrast, the federal government taxes income and/or profit. The individual states tax one or the other or both. This division has to do, in part, with practicality of administering the tax.
The primary purpose of taxes is to fund the projects for the common good, plus the overhead. The secondary purpose is to promote or suppress certain activities, such as tobacco use. Tying a certain tax to a certain purpose is an exception rather than the rule. Most taxes go into the common pool.
Had there been a movie theater in town it would have been taxed. The same is true if both the server and the viewer were in the same town - the server would be taxed as a business and the viewer would be taxed as a consumer.
Moving the server to a different location leads to a situation where the consumption tax is not paid in either jurisdiction. Thus an arbitrary act of placement has dramatic consequences for the revenue of municipalities. It also puts local business at disadvantage, undermining the business tax base and jeopardizing jobs, so further eroding the funding of the common good.
Yeah, I prefer to pay less myself. I also run a Saas business and I would rather not have to collect the taxes. Still if I am concerned with the fairness of it, I have to admit that uniformity trumps my personal preference.
Re: “Netflix tax” may be coming soon to your bill
#38> They’re calling it a utility, so it can be taxed like water and electricity. Curious how it's not a utility when we start talking about regulating who provides Internet service and under what terms, but then it is one when they want to tax your use of it.
"it" in the article is Netflix (generally, video streaming). It sounds like you're talking about internet service. It seems perfectly reasonable to call one of those a utility and one not.
Re: “Netflix tax” may be coming soon to your bill
#39I see a lot of comments here in shock and disbelief. In the spirit of at least trying to consider the most charitable view if the events I would like to offer my justification for what happens. Municipalities tax consumption on their territory. By contrast, the federal government taxes income and/or profit. The individual states tax one or the other or both. This division has to do, in part, with practicality of admi…
A consumer is already paying tax on the "utility" be it cable or wireless, its a line item on your cable/wireless bill. This tax is in addition to other regulatory fees local governments also collect from each subscriber. Why should the consumer also be taxed on the bits they move through that pipe they've already paid tax on?
Re: “Netflix tax” may be coming soon to your bill
#40A municipal tax on cable TV can be enforced because there's a physical line to a residence in the municipality. What's stopping users from ordering netflix to an "address" in a tax-free municipality? For that matter, how are they determining this in the first place? I never told netflix where I live; they only have a billing address. But billing addresses aren't where tax is due; I regularly pay municipally taxed ser…
wouldn't they go off the billing address if they could not determine it in another way?
I pay Netflix with my paypal account that has a fake address that doesn't exist anywhere in the world.