News, info, and opinion by Mac users, for Mac users.

October 3, 2006

money

Taxation, with representation

Posted Oct. 3, ’06, 8:41 AM PT by Dan Moren
Category | Money

Jon CorzineYou know, it’s a good thing our government isn’t smart enough to understand the concept of recursion, or else it would be only a matter of time before they institued a “tax tax,” where they charge you an extra percent on every penny of tax you pay.

Online shopping has long been a refuge for those unwilling to give the government their cut, but more and more states have begun passing taxes that apply not only to physical goods bought online, but digital downloads as well. Back around tax time, we covered the fact that fifteen states, plus the District of Columbia, has enacted taxes on intangible items bought online.

New Jersey governor Jon Corzine (pictured) has decided that this is a great idea, so digital downloads will now included under his state’s newly-increased 7% sales tax. While that’s probably a bummer for iTS users in NJ, it doesn’t seem as bad as the state’s decision to tax shipping and handling charges, tattoos, and massages. Ouch.

It’s been a while since I’ve bought music or movies from the iTunes store, but when I bought Tetris for my iPod last month, I did pay $0.25 on top of the $4.99 purchase (despite living in Taxachusetts, our sales tax is a fairly reasonable 5%—we make up for it in plenty of other taxes, though). It’s not enough to inspire me to go dump all of my iTunes tracks into Boston Harbor, but it’s a pretty short trip for me should I decide to do so.

Update: Whoops, forgot to upload the smiling face of Governor Corzine. Fixed.

[via Infinite Loop]


3 Comments

Matt Blackman said:

As a NJ resident, alllow me to be the first to say...

I'M LEAVING.

No, not because of Gov. Moneybags' recent efforts to nickel-and-dime us to death, but because this is the third time within the last 30 years that my fellow citizens have been foolish enough to elect a governor (from a party whose name I shant presently mention), who raised our taxes, in violation of specific promises not to do so, before we even had a chance to change the name on the "welcome to NJ" roadsigns.

I could also mention the recent news commentaries debating whether NJ or Louisiana is the most corrupt state in the Union, or the embarassment of our most recent former elected governor as well. (I know that sounds clumsy, but you have to understand that the party currently in power doesn't always let the people actually vote anymore, or pay much other regard to our election laws. Hence, we recently had to suffer an unelected governor for over a year, and our two Senators are currently either under investigation for corruption, or vanished from the public eye entirely because he probably forgot who he was and wandered off onto the Capitol Mall...)

I encourage my fellow citizens to leave now, before they raise the tolls again. There are faster-growing parts of the country not too far to the south. Sure they drive too slow down there, but with the lower insurance rates, we can afford to bump 'em out of the way.

October 3, 2006 9:26 AM
John Lockwood said:

You American's don't know how lucky you are.

Here in the UK we get charged 17.5% sales tax (which also applies to shipping charges as well), and if you think that's bad the Irish get charged 21% THREE TIMES AS MUCH AS YOU!!!

Some other European countries charge even more than that (up to 25%).

See http://www.uscib.org/index.asp?documentID=1676

October 4, 2006 5:11 AM
Goose said:

25% here in Sweden...

October 4, 2006 9:40 AM

Leave a comment

 



Visit other IDG sites: