WE GOT BIGGER GUNS!................
Posted on 08/23/2010 6:36:40 AM PDT by Red Badger
It looks like cash hungry local governments are getting awfully rapacious these days:
Between her blog and infrequent contributions to ehow.com, over the last few years she says she’s made about $50. To [Marilyn] Bess, her website is a hobby. To the city of Philadelphia, it’s a potential moneymaker, and the city wants its cut.
In May, the city sent Bess a letter demanding that she pay $300, the price of a business privilege license.
“The real kick in the pants is that I don’t even have a full-time job, so for the city to tell me to pony up $300 for a business privilege license, pay wage tax, business privilege tax, net profits tax on a handful of money is outrageous,” Bess says.
It would be one thing if Bess’ website were, well, an actual business, or if the amount of money the city wanted didn’t outpace her earnings six-fold. Sure, the city has its rules; and yes, cash-strapped cities can’t very well ignore potential sources of income. But at the same time, there must be some room for discretion and common sense.
When Bess pressed her case to officials with the city’s now-closed tax amnesty program, she says, “I was told to hire an accountant.”
She’s not alone. After dutifully reporting even the smallest profits on their tax filings this year, a number — though no one knows exactly what that number is — of Philadelphia bloggers were dispatched letters informing them that they owe $300 for a privilege license, plus taxes on any profits they made.
Even if, as with Sean Barry, that profit is $11 over two years.
To say that these kinds of draconian measures are detrimental to the public discourse would be an understatement.
Oh well, this is yet another reason to not be bothered with doing business in the city.
Screw the Mob. I want taxing rights. I can make more money & it’s legal theft. LOL
Good luck collecting it.
Philly will lose another in a long line of suits against them
If Philly gets away with this, every CITY - COUNTY - STATE - and FEDERAL government will want in on some of that “action”..............
They can try :)
They might just win.............in Obamaland, this IS possible..............
They got guns...................
She should move outside the Philly City limits, then challenge Philly on Constitutional Grounds. It is an attempt by the state to license free speech.
Do they have a similar tax on newspapers? A blog is an electronic editorial.
Not really.
My blog writings are shipped to my website design guru somewhere in the Midwest (not saying), who doctors them up and ships them to my computer guru somewhere else in the Midwest (not saying), who posts them on servers located somewhere in the U.S., Canada and offshore (not saying).
The civil service idiots wherever I live (not saying) would have to be at least 150 IQ points smarter and several thousand dollars richer to successfully tag me for a $300 tax for posting content to the Internet.
Like so many other government schemes, the Philly tax is poorly conceived, ineffective, worthless and unenforceable.
So did the Brits :)
Unless folks roll over. Here's hoping they don't.
NEVER UNDERESTIMATE THE POWER OF GOVERNMENT TO DO IT’s WORST.................
That’s the way to do it.
WE GOT BIGGER GUNS!................
LOL! I think we can leave the heaters at home :)
The last time that the city won a lawsuit was when Ben Franklin was alive.
But I see your point :)
They ARE coming for the bloggers NOW!
It's the bloggers who are disproportionately impacted by it because they are the ones whose "businesses" hardly generate any revenue at all.
Phily’s payroll tax reaches out to Valley Forge, or so I’m told...
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