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.
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 services for one address at another billing address.
Do you know what else has no tax? Piracy.
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.
The distinction I'm trying to make is between taxing a stream of bits and taxing a stream of dollars.
Similarly, municipalities are not taxing the weight of the items purchased at the store, but their monetary value.
Source: http://www.thedailysheeple.com/what-if-politicians-had-to-we...
Who ever came up with this is very clever in finding a loophole, and completely clueless in thinking that it's even marginally acceptable to try and exploit said loophole.
Are you streaming live broadcasts? Because that requires a tv licence.
> but TAX on online content? What is the point of that?
I guess to provide investment into the infrastructure, supported by heavy users. I'm not sure what the evidence is about usage of networks and streaming.
People will complain about anything.
