Monday, January 6, 2020

Democrats propose Netflix tax for Montgomery County

Democratic leaders in the Maryland General Assembly are poised to propose a new tax on the highly popular entertainment streaming services used by most Montgomery County residents. The officials announced the proposed tax quietly in a Friday news dump strategically arranged by The Washington Post, whose reporters were aware of the pending tax earlier in the week, another clear example of coordination between the Montgomery County political cartel and the Post.

Subscribers to Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime Video, Disney+, Apple TV, and other streaming services could find a hefty tax added to their bill as soon as this year. The Post reports that the new Netflix tax would be one of several new taxes slapped on residents of Montgomery County and the rest of the state to cover a new $6000-per-taxpayer spending hike for public education statewide. Montgomery County is already spending record amounts on public schools, and the County's own recent report shows that the declining school system has only gotten worse for all the high spending.

Now residents' Baby Yoda and You addictions are squarely in the tax crosshairs of the cartel. With property and income taxes at record highs, it is almost impossible for officials to add $6000 in hikes via those taxes. The county is now turning to these sin taxes, similar to those you pay on your cell phone service and the rain that falls in your home's yard, to get the same amount in sneakier ways. You may recall that the County floated a new Trash Tax in 2019, for example.

The Netflix tax will be hard to pass openly, however. Most of their constituents will be furious, and the tax will fall heaviest on young people, the poor and senior citizens - like all of "progressive" Montgomery County's regressive flat taxes.

9 comments:

  1. Updating sales tax to include digital purchases is common sense. Only Dyer wants MD to be stuck in the 20th century.

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    1. 12:35: It's not a "digital purchase." These services provide unlimited streaming.

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    2. The change applies to digital purchases. Which, obviously, streaming services are. Is that honestly confusing to you?

      It doesn't matter if you buy a digital movie, rent a digital movie, or subscribe to a service that provides the digital movie. Those all should incur a sales tax. Just like, in the 20th century, it didn't matter if you bought a dvd, rented a dvd, or subscribed to an unlimited rental plan. Those, obviously, also incur a sales tax.

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    3. 10:01: My only confusion is why you would support a tax on each streaming service? The delivery of Netflix and similar programming does not impact the roads or other physical county/state-maintained infrastructure.

      Where is the justification to tax an electronic transmission from Netflix to someone's device?

      There is none.

      Once you've established you favor a gratuitous tax with no logical justification, you're well on your way to telling us how much you enjoy getting your license renewed at MVA or the cool factor of Barwood cab.

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    4. Huh? That argument makes zero sense. A sales tax doesn't exist to cover associated wear and tear on roads, sewers, etc.

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    5. 11:35: In fact, such an argument has regularly been made for taxes. And without a tangible argument like that, you have no moral standing to impose a tax. You may have legal standing, but not a moral one.

      What role does Maryland government play in delivering Netflix programming to Johnny Smith's iPad?

      Zero!

      What is the impact on Maryland infrastructure of someone watching The Witcher on their laptop?

      Zero!

      "The power to tax is the power to destroy."

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  2. Thinking outside the box (which you obviously can't do), this tax would provide funding to the Public Services Commission and the utilities they manage.

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    1. 1:32: First of all, that's not what party leaders have said they will be spending it on - they're raising taxes to cover the $6000 per taxpayer cost needed to pay for the Kirwan Commission scam.

      Second, the PSC is totally beholden to the utility companies, and has never punished them in any Draconian way for their many violations, misspending, and ethical breaches. New York's utility regulators, for example, are far more supportive of the public they serve than Maryland's PSC.

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