SPRINGFIELD – "Tax something if you want less of it" is the standard lawmakers have thrown around for decades. That must be the theme Springfield lawmakers are following, because they've taxed tobacco out of the price range of most, except the wealthiest.
There's also an sticky effort to tax sugary drinks that continues to drip-drip-drip around the State Capitol.
Now it appears lawmakers want us to watch less Game of Thrones, House of Cards and other Netflix-type series. They want to not only tax cable and satellite TV, they're out to tax internet streaming service, Joe Kaiser of Illinois Policy Institute reports.
An amendment filed March 2 would apply a 6.25 percent sales tax to cable and satellite TV, as well as internet streaming services such as Netflix, Spotify and Xbox Live. For Chicagoans, this means an additional tax on top of a 9 percent citywide “amusement tax” they’re already paying for those services.
State Sen. Toi Hutchinson, D-Chicago Heights, filed the amendment to Senate Bill 9, part of the package of bills that make up the Senate’s “grand bargain. In addition to TV and streaming services, SB 9 would expand the 6.25 percent statewide sales tax to an array of other services, including repairs, landscaping, laundry, tattoos, body piercings, tanning and much more.
With the 9 percent amusement tax and a 6.25 percent statewide sales tax, a Chicagoan’s Netflix bill for a standard $9.99 subscription, for example, would be roughly $11.50. The city’s amusement tax is not only regressive, but also legally questionable.
More about the tax hike, evidently proposed to cut down on Illinoisans' entertainment HERE.
