As part of their plans to modernise the state's tax code, North Carolina legislators are considering introducing digital download tax charges. According to reports, such a measure could increase revenue by up to $12m, which in perspective to the state's current $20bn budget deficit, is a nominal amount. Items, including music, movies and video games, would all be affected by the changes, which Rep. Paul Luebke thinks is justified:
"We used to think of everything in terms of being tangible. Nobody thought of how you could possibly download anything. So if you buy a book in a bookstore, you're going to have to pay sales tax on it. If you're downloading a book from a book seller, you should have to pay sales tax on that as well."
North Carolina isn't the only state considering such tax amendments. Last month, New York officials confirmed a proposition to introduce an 'iPod tax' was being contemplated. These reports only demonstrate that it's not just the private sector that has been hit hard by the deepening recession.
You work, you pay taxes, you drive a motor vehicle you pay taxes on using the roads and fuel you put into the vehicle, which is used to get you to work to pay taxes for working.
Then you want to buy something to which you pay taxes to the country of origin then your country want to tax you more.
Squeeze, squeeze, squeeze.
I don't condone piracy, thats what will happen.
Last edited by leesmithg on 29 Jan 2009 - 15:34
Zune Marketplace music is encoded at 192 or higher, and if you have a Zune Pass (and maybe even if you don't, I'm not sure), and use the song credits you get with the pass, it's DRM free.
Just putting that out there.
I don't like taxes as much as the next guy, but I can see where they're coming from. More and more things are going digital and it's something the government just hasn't had to look at until recently.
-Spenser
http://www.fairtax.org
Never in the history of recorded civilization, I bet you will not find one time that a government has done with LESS tax revenue, or canceled a government agency.
Never in the history of recorded civilization, I bet you will not find one time that a government has done with LESS tax revenue, or canceled a government agency.
Oh good! So I can still continue watching movies and stuff without paying any of this "new tax".
After the Great Depression, FDR's New Deal was doing wonders for the country. However, few years down the road FDR freaked out, and decided to increase taxes to cover for his spending, which put the country into the second part of the depression, until WWII arrived. Moral of the story, increasing taxes during a recession is moronic.
When I buy from amazon.co.uk I pay 17.5% v.a.t.
And who will assess the tax? The ISP? Where is the line drawn when the term "downloading" is mentioned? After all, my cable modem needs to download stuff from my cable provider in order to connect to the Internet. What if an ISP is having network troubles? Between fiddling with the gateway and the ISP trying to fix their own equipment, the gateway would download things properly...over and over....
fine for me. but once I pay that tax then it is finally my property and will be able to distribute to who ever I want completely free. That ok then?
I seriously doubt it... you buy a car, pay tax on it, sell it to someone else. they pay tax on it, they sell it and tax is paid again, and again and again. Leagally anything you sell is supposed to be claimed and tax paid on it. Any Item sold through retail chanels whether taxed previously or not requires a tax to be charged again at the state level. Even personal property that you purchase from your neighbor is supposed to be claimed so the state can charge you a personal property tax. .. so while you MIGHT get away with it.. You might not if... there becomes a way to track how many times the program has been downloaded to your friends and their friends and so on... kinda like some download cookie... This is just hypothetical but it would not surprise me that the government figure out some way to do this as well.
I seriously doubt it... you buy a car, pay tax on it, sell it to someone else. they pay tax on it, they sell it and tax is paid again, and again and again. Leagally anything you sell is supposed to be claimed and tax paid on it. Any Item sold through retail chanels whether taxed previously or not requires a tax to be charged again at the state level. Even personal property that you purchase from your neighbor is supposed to be claimed so the state can charge you a personal property tax. .. so while you MIGHT get away with it.. You might not if... there becomes a way to track how many times the program has been downloaded to your friends and their friends and so on... kinda like some download cookie... This is just hypothetical but it would not surprise me that the government figure out some way to do this as well.
thats because you sell the car, so you make a profit. if I give away my car for free to a friend he will have to pay registration/tax only when they expire. Also tracking how many times has been downloaded is not feasible as I can store my files on my home server, that will skew the download counter already.
Somewhat agreed... Where's the representation in exchange for this tax?
This is totally rediculous. This is just more of the same, Raleigh can't manage or balance a budget to save their collective asses. What worthless attempt to try to generate more tax revenue when everyone in the state (and country) is already hurting. Sales taxes of online services/goods are legally required to be declared when you file your taxes anyway.
Raliegh needs to wake up, and get over this spend, spend, spend, tax, tax, tax behavior. NC has the highest gas/road use taxes in the southeast US, and still the roads are garbage -- potholes, rough surfaces, etc. As soon as I cross the SC border, the interstate becomes much better.
These ass clowns in Raleigh should have been voted out last November.
Edit: And yes, I am mad. The state already takes farrrrr too much of a chunk of my pay.
Edit 2: Anyone else following the state news that the NC state/government employees (including teachers) health care fund is OUT OF MONEY??! BROKE! Another example of the clowns in Raliegh.
Guess we'll all have to install Quickbooks.
One day, you will in fact own nothing, not even you. Everything will be rented out in one way or another!
God I hope I'm wrong. Oh ****, there is no God. Dawn, we are all ****ed!!
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