Chicago Sued Over Its Attempted 9% Netflix Tax

from the tax-ALL-the-things dept

Back in July we noted how the city of Chicago was hoping to cash in on streaming services by imposing a new tax on Netflix. Blind to the negative impact such taxes can have on emerging economies, Chicago proudly proclaimed it would be expanding its 9% "amusement tax" authority (traditionally covering book stores, music stores, ball games and other brick and mortar entertainment) to cover any service that interacts with the cloud. While the new ruling was supposed to technically take effect September 1, Chicago recently announced it was postponing portions of the new tax until next year to field criticism and manage plan logistics.

While Chicagoans wait, the city's now on the receiving end of a new lawsuit (pdf) by the Liberty Justice Center, which claims that Chicago is violating the law in two ways. One, the lawsuit claims that the city aldermen violated city rules by not holding a full vote on the changes. Two, the lawsuit states that Chicago's tax grab also violates the Internet Freedom Tax Act, which prohibits local, state, and federal governments from enacting "internet taxes." The plaintiffs are quick to note that actually putting the idea to a public vote likely wouldn't end well for the city:

"No aldermen voted on this tax. It never went before the Chicago City Council, which makes the so-called 'Netflix tax' an illegal tax," Jeffrey Schwab, an attorney with the Liberty Justice Center, said in a news release Thursday. "If the city wants to tax Internet-based streaming media services, then it should put the measure through the political process, and let Chicagoans have their voices heard through the democratic process."

Should Chicago's plan even survive the lawsuit, it remains unclear how the city plans to collect the tax. Would it demand that Netflix and Spotify tax users themselves, even if they have no physical presence in the city proper? Would Chicago residents be required to report this revenue (which they either won't do, or would hide behind VPNs)? Chicago's just one of many cities taking this controversial tack as traditional revenue runs dry, creating an absolutely mind-boggling legal minefield for new economy companies suddenly facing an ocean of discordant and often logically and legally inconsistent attempts to tax the cloud.

Filed Under: chicago, entertainment tax, internet tax freedom, internet taxes, netflix tax, tax
Companies: netflix