‘Netflix Tax’ Goes Into Effect In Pennsylvania

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That new "Netflix tax" has just went into effect in Pennsylvania. The state's 6% sales tax has now been extended to subscription services like Netflix, Hulu, and digital downloads of music, e-books, apps, online games, and ringtones. :(

Netflix subscribers will have to pay more to watch movies starting today thanks to a series of new taxes. The new taxes were part of a revenue package passed by the Legislature and signed by Gov. Tom Wolf to fill a $1.3 billion hole in the state’s new $31.5 billion budget. The state’s existing 6-percent sales tax will now be extended to digital downloads and subscription services like Netflix and Hulu.
 
I wonder if something like this will hit California in the future. We have a lot of politicians to keep fed and happy after all; and ever growing debt.
 
Hypergreatthing said:
how do states start taxing interstate commerce? Just curious how that's legal.
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I am guessing they are taxing only customers in PA, not the country.

I also believe Netflix has a physical presence in probably every state, via servers installed in ISP's data centers.
 
Dear Country and Old people, wake the fuck up! You can fill every gap in budget with legalized marijuana. This 'entertainment rape' is just that! Pennsylvania raise hell, quit rolling over and taking it. And quit voting Democrat!
 
SnowBeast said:
Dear Country and Old people, wake the fuck up! You can fill every gap in budget with legalized marijuana. This 'entertainment rape' is just that! Pennsylvania raise hell, quit rolling over and taking it. And quit voting Democrat!
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no, you can't. the more money you feed the government, the more it wants to take from you.
 
SnowBeast said:
Dear Country and Old people, wake the fuck up! You can fill every gap in budget with legalized marijuana. This 'entertainment rape' is just that! Pennsylvania raise hell, quit rolling over and taking it. And quit voting Democrat!
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Democrat gov, republican legislature...who drafted and passed the bill and you know shaped the budget.
 
SnowBeast said:
Dear Country and Old people, wake the fuck up! You can fill every gap in budget with legalized marijuana. This 'entertainment rape' is just that! Pennsylvania raise hell, quit rolling over and taking it. And quit voting Democrat!
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quit voting democrat or republican. Ha. Good luck with that.
 
SnowBeast said:
Dear Country and Old people, wake the fuck up! You can fill every gap in budget with legalized marijuana. This 'entertainment rape' is just that! Pennsylvania raise hell, quit rolling over and taking it. And quit voting Democrat!
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I am doing the best I can! Please send help.
 
SnowBeast said:
Dear Country and Old people, wake the fuck up! You can fill every gap in budget with legalized marijuana. This 'entertainment rape' is just that! Pennsylvania raise hell, quit rolling over and taking it. And quit voting Democrat for the either of the two "major" US political parties!
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fixed that for you
 
It's generally the Republicans that come up with the most asinine ideas for new laws and taxes.
 
ml_paladin888 said:
fixed that for you
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In accordance with the rules of the game theory in US elections, there will always and forever only be 2 major political parties. You could magically wisk the GOP and the Dems out of existence tonight...and in 4 years we'd be right back to where we are now.

But nevermind governmental theory and how things actually work.
 
Steve said:
That new "Netflix tax" has just went into effect in Pennsylvania. The state's 6% sales tax has now been extended to subscription services like Netflix, Hulu, and digital downloads of music, e-books, apps, online games, and ringtones. :(

Netflix subscribers will have to pay more to watch movies starting today thanks to a series of new taxes. The new taxes were part of a revenue package passed by the Legislature and signed by Gov. Tom Wolf to fill a $1.3 billion hole in the state’s new $31.5 billion budget. The state’s existing 6-percent sales tax will now be extended to digital downloads and subscription services like Netflix and Hulu.
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Steve! Good to see you back. I hope you are feeling better.
 
Hypergreatthing said:
how do states start taxing interstate commerce? Just curious how that's legal.
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They're not. They're taxing the services rendered in their state.

How they expect to collect said taxes is the problem. State businesses are periodically audited for compliance, but unwashed masses are supposed to self report. (HAHhahaahHAhaa) Most likely they'll say Netflix!! this is YOUR problem. Then Netflix will say noooOOOoooooo that's an Internet Tax and is illegal.
 
EchoWars said:
It's generally the Republicans that come up with the most asinine ideas for new laws and taxes.
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You mean like Hillary's plan to tax your retirement accounts?

One of her many tax increases planned is to tax stock transactions. It's sold as a tax on wall street, but in reality it is the customers, not wall street that will be paying the tax.
Every time you buy/sell a stock in your 401k or IRA you will pay a tax, even if you lose money on the trade.
You say you don't own stocks? Better look again, since most people have mutual funds that own stocks. Every time the mutual fund trades they will pay a tax, which of course will be passed on to you in the form of lower yields.

So much for having a tax free account for retirement.
 
Speaking as devil's advocate, physical purchases are no longer top dog these days and the sales tax as such usually does not apply online. States should move to begin taxing digital goods in order to take advantage of new and existing revenue streams the internet is replacing.
 
Hypergreatthing said:
how do states start taxing interstate commerce? Just curious how that's legal.
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It's always been legal for states to collect taxes on services rendered to the people in their state. The issue is that they can't force businesses that don't have a physical presence in the state to collect taxes for them unless those businesses agree to do so. So the states have been relying on self-reporting from the residents of the state which, as you can imagine, doesn't work really well ("Of course I didn't buy anything off the internet last year! Amazon? Never heard of 'em.")

But, yes, technically all the stuff you buy off the internet whether physical or digital isn't exempt from taxation. It's just up to the states to figure out how to tax it and then how to collect that tax.
 
I tell you what, the world should never tax stuff that is an necessity such as food, restaurants and prescription. Government always finds way to make money, yet the society needs to find a way to enjoy their hard earn cash. Online services like Netflix, should not charge tax, I feel that if you aren't renting/or owing a business building, than don't tax us, let these types of company make their own money. Ugh..
 
YeuEmMaiMai said:
no, you can't. the more money you feed the government, the more it wants to take from you.
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Exactly. It works like this.

Does budget gap exist? If No:
- Useless spending, pay raises, etc.

Does budget gap exist? If Yes:
- Cut education and introduce taxes.

They rarely do a hard look at expenses and say "you know what, we can save some money here ..".
 
Shogon said:
I wonder if something like this will hit California in the future. We have a lot of politicians to keep fed and happy after all; and ever growing debt.
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I am sure that Cali is next. They are out of cash, so if this works for Philly it is just a matter of time.
 
nutzo said:
You mean like Hillary's plan to tax your retirement accounts?

One of her many tax increases planned is to tax stock transactions. It's sold as a tax on wall street, but in reality it is the customers, not wall street that will be paying the tax.
Every time you buy/sell a stock in your 401k or IRA you will pay a tax, even if you lose money on the trade.
You say you don't own stocks? Better look again, since most people have mutual funds that own stocks. Every time the mutual fund trades they will pay a tax, which of course will be passed on to you in the form of lower yields.

So much for having a tax free account for retirement.
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Huh? Trading stocks are already taxed and only the proffit you make. So what are they going to tax if you sell for a loss? A loss you can then use to reduce your taxes at the end of the year. Sorry but sounds like the kind of BS you hear on fox that is completely untrue, but hey it's not real news anyway (No I don't support hillary.... or drumpf). So you're gonna need to provide some sources to back up this BS.

Oh, and retirement accounts are already taxed..... You either pay up front, or pay tax on the profits when you take it out during retirement... So no idea where you are getting the idea you had a tax free retirement account that hillary was going to take from....
 
Shmee said:
I am sure that Cali is next. They are out of cash, so if this works for Philly it is just a matter of time.
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Cali is out of cash because we have spent it all on stupid shit like, Oh lets buy smartphones for all state employees and pay for their plans and data too. Oh lets buy CNG powered cars and give one to each employee so we can be green and the list goes on and on. The fact they rape us Californian's each year on our car registrations alone and are still broke baffles me. Just paid $400 for my Prius registration this year, add that up to all the of people with all their different cars in this state you start to wonder where all that registration money really goes. :cool: (My guess is hookers and midget clowns)

As far as taxing on things like this. It will never happen here in Cali. They already tried to pass something like this two or three years ago and it got shot down really quick.
 
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Taxing a very specific service like that is so freaking ridiculous, considering it's already taxed like any other service/product.
 
nutzo said:
So much for having a tax free account for retirement.
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No such thing, it's tax deferred. You pay taxes when you retire and withdraw it.

They can't double dip, they probably want some of that tax money sooner rather than later. They of course can go fuck themselves.
 
It's either this or become responsible with their overspending. This is MUCH easier.
 
YeuEmMaiMai said:
no, you can't. the more money you feed the government, the more it wants to take from you.
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So few people get this.

We have never had a budget cut, maybe rather than raising taxes, we cut some spending, and I don't mean on the proposed budget, but on the current budget...A big one at that.
 
Zepher said:
I am guessing they are taxing only customers in PA, not the country.

I also believe Netflix has a physical presence in probably every state, via servers installed in ISP's data centers.
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Netflix service is hosted by AWS.
 
SGTGimpy said:
Cali is out of cash because we have spent it all on stupid shit like, Oh lets buy smartphones for all state employees and pay for their plans and data too. Oh lets buy CNG powered cars and give one to each employee so we can be green and the list goes on and on. The fact they rape us Californian's each year on our car registrations alone and are still broke baffles me. Just paid $400 for my Prius registration this year, add that up to all the of people with all their different cars in this state you start to wonder where all that registration money really goes. :cool: (My guess is hookers and midget clowns)

As far as taxing on things like this. It will never happen here in Cali. They already tried to pass something like this two or three years ago and it got shot down really quick.
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Irresponsible spending. They need to spend their (our) money wisely. It's just not happening. So, raise taxes to pick up the slack. More money? Cool, spend it inefficiently again. Cycle continues.

I wouldn't have much of an issue if the tax money was spent wisely.
 
alxlwson said:
Netflix service is hosted by AWS.
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The move to AWS is new, and that is just the main host, they still have lots of hardware in the facilities of Internet service providers and Internet exchange points. Netflix just doesn't have any of its own data centers anymore, that's it.

"Netflix still has a lot of equipment it manages more directly, but not in Amazon's data centers. Netflix operates its own content delivery network (CDN) to optimize delivery of its streaming video...The CDN equipment isn't going to Amazon or any "cloud" service, a Netflix spokesperson told Ars today. "Those reside in ISP facilities or in data exchange centers, etc. We do use AWS to update the content on them," Netflix said."
 
BlueFireIce said:
The move to AWS is new, and that is just the main host, they still have lots of hardware in the facilities of Internet service providers and Internet exchange points. Netflix just doesn't have any of its own data centers anymore, that's it.

"Netflix still has a lot of equipment it manages more directly, but not in Amazon's data centers. Netflix operates its own content delivery network (CDN) to optimize delivery of its streaming video...The CDN equipment isn't going to Amazon or any "cloud" service, a Netflix spokesperson told Ars today. "Those reside in ISP facilities or in data exchange centers, etc. We do use AWS to update the content on them," Netflix said."
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Mind posting the link to the full article?
 
I guess I'm having a hard time seeing Netflix as a taxable 'product.' Sure, I sign up for Netflix, but I'm effectively renting their library. I don't really get to own anything for my subscription. I thought sales taxes were, more or less, applied to products and services you purchase. Feels like paying property taxes for an apartment. Not sure this will stand up if someone sues against it.
 
Shotglass01 said:
I guess I'm having a hard time seeing Netflix as a taxable 'product.' Sure, I sign up for Netflix, but I'm effectively renting their library. I don't really get to own anything for my subscription. I thought sales taxes were, more or less, applied to products and services you purchase. Feels like paying property taxes for an apartment. Not sure this will stand up if someone sues against it.
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Dude, Netflix is a service.
 
alxlwson said:
Mind posting the link to the full article?
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Netflix finishes its massive migration to the Amazon cloud

"Netflix operates its own content delivery network (CDN) called Open Connect. Netflix manages Open Connect from Amazon, but the storage boxes holding videos that stream to your house or mobile device are all located in data centers within Internet service providers' networks or at Internet exchange points, facilities where major network operators exchange traffic. Netflix distributes traffic directly to Comcast, Verizon, AT&T, and other big network operators at these exchange points.

Once a customer hits the “play” button, video is delivered from one of those sites. But all the applications and data needed to manage everything a customer does before clicking “play”—such as signing up for the service or searching videos—is running in the Amazon cloud. All the customer-facing systems for the streaming business are thus in Amazon or the Open Connect storage boxes. “All the search, personalization, all the business logic, all the data processing that enables the streaming experience, the 100 different applications and services that make up the streaming application, they live in AWS,” Izrailevsky said."
 
alxlwson said:
Dude, Netflix is a service.
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Yea, it's just not a service I see as a traditional one. I can, pay taxes, to a guy that would say fix my car even if no parts were used. Or I directly pay a tax for a plumber on their invoice or it's already built in to their fee on the invoice.

Netflix provides me with nothing except a means to watch rentals over internet lines they don't own. Just seems very fishy.
 
Shotglass01 said:
Yea, it's just not a service I see as a traditional one. I can, pay taxes, to a guy that would say fix my car even if no parts were used. Or I directly pay a tax for a plumber on their invoice or it's already built in to their fee on the invoice.

Netflix provides me with nothing except a means to watch rentals over internet lines they don't own. Just seems very fishy.
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They provide part of the means. Your ISP provides the other part of the means. Netflix provides the content and the application, which is a service
 
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