Stop the City of Chicago 9% Tax on Netflix, Spotify and Other Online Services
- by: Christopher Plummer
- recipient: Mayor Rahm Emmanuel and the City of Chicago
The City of Chicago's 9% tax on streaming services is over-the-top and will not only hurt consumers, but it will hurt the economy and set a dangerous precedent on the lengths government can go to to squeeze money out of taxpayers and invade their privacy.
This tax is also going to be hard to enforce, because of VPN services and jurisdiction issues. It will end up costing the city more to implement the tax than they will make from it. Also, I hope companies resist this tax. I am afraid with fewer consumers able to pay for services, companies will close and jobs will be lost.
Also, I believe this violates citizens online privacy and will allow the city to monitor which sites you visit in their attempt to tax.
The internet should be a free and and economical place that everyone can use without spying and without government meddling.
Dear Mayor Rahm Emanuel and City of Chicago Officials,
""9% doesn't seem much until you add 9% to this service and 9% to that service and so on. It adds up."
We are writing to urge you to rescind and not support a 9% tax to be imposed on online services such as Netflix, Spotify, Amazon and others on September 1, 2015 by the Chicago Department of Finance. We believe this tax is is further gouging an overtaxed populous, violates online privacy, and will harm the overall economy with fewer subscribers paying for services. We also believe that this tax will be impossible to enforce fairly and will end up costing the city more in the way of administration, lost business, and legal fees than the tax will be worth.
We do not believe the city needs this tax. We believe that this is an attempt by the City of Chicago to gouge residents for even more money rather than budget and audit itself to make sure money is spent on real services and not on wasteful campaigns and projects benefiting the "Machine." Please be responsible with the money we give you already, and cut out waste.
We also believe this tax damages our fragile economy, hurts online businesses and hurts the overall technology industry and economy. With less people spending on online services because of this tax, many companies will go out of business and people will lose jobs.
We also believe that this is a blatant violation of our privacy. The City of Chicago has no right to monitor or know what sites we visit. Spying is spying whether it is for tax profit or for espionage.
$12 million dollars in revenue will not justify the adminstration costs, technology, and infrastructure to implement this tax. Not to mention, there will be incredible legal fees from the resulting lawsuits from citizens and companies that oppose this tax. With VPN services and other technology available, this tax will be impossible to impose fairly.
Furthermore, if you implement this tax September 1st, challenges will come regarding your jurisdiction online.
In closing, please heed our call to eliminate this tax before it starts. It will be hugely unpopular, and it will be far more trouble to you than it is worth. We believe this unpredented tax is also bad for Chicago, bad for America, and bad for elected officials.
Sincerely,
Residents of Chicago
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