Candis R. McLean
Netflix currently has 47 million subscribers, Amazon 17 million, and Hulu stands at 12 million. If you’re one of the collective 76 million subscribers with an account registered in Pennsylvania, on August 1st, a Pennsylvania Streaming tax was added to your bill. Starting Monday, the state implemented a “digital download tax”. The increase in cost isn’t just relegated to television streaming services. The tax spans all downloads across every media platform. It involves music, games, apps, books, and other downloads.
The increase is a six percent tax on digital purchases. Governor Tom Wolf signed the legislation in an attempt to add gains to a 1.3 billion deficit in the state’s budget. Pennsylvania’s new 31.5 billion dollar budget will get a small jolt in increase from this tax which includes e-book, e-cards, ringtones, and more. Monthly subscription services like Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon have exact rates. Other downloads, and their rates of usage, are based off an individual’s habits and lifestyle. The scale and level that this new tax dictates your budget is purely dependent on the pattern at which you download media and which type of service it is.
Some downloads are exempt from the hike. Digital textbooks, magazines, newspapers, and digital downloads like The Bible all provide users a reprieve from the tax. For some, the increase is seamless and a serviceable expense for necessary purchases. For other Pennsylvanians, the tax may push individuals towards cutting back on downloads, maybe for monetary reasons or based off principle. Whether people chose to downgrade their volume of downloads or keep things status quo, nobody is happy about the new tax:
https://twitter.com/MaurielleFOX2/status/760569407970037760
This one state will start paying a “Netflix tax” today – and we’re worried it will spread https://t.co/Ty7gxDJLxm pic.twitter.com/xXA1QgmYrx
— HelloGiggles (@hellogiggles) August 2, 2016
government: why do people pirate stuff?
government: *puts 6% – 12% tax on streaming services, ebooks, etc*— Allie (@AllieMarie123) August 2, 2016
Me hearing about the Pennsylvania Netflix tax:
WE NEED TO DUMP ALL OF THE TEA INTO THE HARBOR
— Tyler Moore (@TylerMoore99) August 3, 2016
For people living outside of The Keystone State, this may be a time that the family or additional users features on your various services get put to use.
never easy