DLC possibly getting taxed?

OlDirtyBastard

OlDirtyBastard

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I was just reading an article on IGN about how North Carolina State Rep. Paul Luebke, wants to tax downloadable content. Most of the reader comments that I found were a bunch of foul words and shots a democrats that were not well thought out so I thought I would bring the discusion over here to see if anyone had something more to contribute.

Here is the full article: http://xboxlive.ign.com/articles/949/949125p1.html

At first I had no problem with this idea. Yeah it sucks to pay an extra 6%, (or whatever your state charges) but it is not much and ideally the money is going towards something good. Personally I agree with Vice-President Joe Biden, (which never happens) that paying taxes is patriotic. Now I think that it is only patriotic when the money is going towards bettering the country and not going to some dead end contract that is run by the mob or some shady company.

When something that is downloaded off of the internet is not taxed it is taking advantage of a loophole in tax law. When most of these tax laws were written, no one invloved probably even knew that downloading the things that we are doing now was even possible. The laws are out of date and must be updated. Under this reasoning, taxing DLC is perfectly fine in my book.

The problem that State Rep. Paul Luebke probably does not understand is that when we go to the store and buy points cards, we are taxed. With his proposal, we would be paying tax on the points card and then again when we go to download. Representative Luebke needs to be educated further on the subject before he goes all the way with his proposal.

I would love to hear what you guys have to say about this subject.
 
[quote name='OlDirtyBastard']
The problem that State Rep. Paul Luebke probably does not understand is that when we go to the store and buy points cards, we are taxed. With his proposal, we would be paying tax on the points card and then again when we go to download. Representative Luebke needs to be educated further on the subject before he goes all the way with his proposal.
[/quote]

Since this is an xbox source, you would not get taxed twice. If you buy a card in the store you are taxed, they're not going to take extra M$ points because you can't convert those to cash to be taxed.
 
[quote name='Dingleberry']Since this is an xbox source, you would not get taxed twice. If you buy a card in the store you are taxed, they're not going to take extra M$ points because you can't convert those to cash to be taxed.[/QUOTE]Yeah I was thinking the same thing. We ALREADY pay taxes for MS points!
 
[quote name='FloodsAreUponUS']Good. Maybe will get full games now instead of DLC add ons to incomplete games.[/quote]

Yeah I was hoping the same thing but I am doubtful. Things would have to get pretty bad for companies to give up the DLC scam.

I'm not sure how PS3 cards work. I know you can charge your credit card to the precise amount of the download but are the prepaid cards points or money? If it is money then they will feel the double tax.

Also what soonersfan was saying isn't really the same. If you buy a car you are taxed and then you can use that car until you want to sell it and then there is a second tax. This is taxing you 2 times before you ever get the product, unless you play with the card or something.
 
[quote name='OlDirtyBastard']paying taxes is patriotic. Now I think that it is only patriotic when the money is going towards bettering the country [/quote]

I would too... but say things like the roads I drive on don't seem to reflect that. :roll:
 
I'd rather see a better tax plan for online purchases on the whole, before getting into the minutiae of digitally delivered content.

I paid tax on Amazon purchases when I lived in KY, because there was a physical distro center there (like 5 fuckin' minutes from my place, and it still took forever to ship!). Now that I'm in OH, and there's no physical distro center...no tax.

That should change first and foremost, to accommodate spending that we're still doing as consumers, simply not in B&M stores.

Maybe then we can focus on taxing iTunes and XBL points. But, of course, and I think y'all are jumping the gun here, that the tax being discussed is on the end of making the purchase *online* - so those silly enough to buy MS points at face value instead of buying the cards on the cheap in stores.

EDIT: Also, yeah, now that I think about it, my PSN purchases are taxed in OH, where they weren't in KY. That too.
 
paying taxes is patriotic, paying state taxes on transfers of goods online strikes me as contradictory to traditional sales taxes. If there is a tax, make it a flat federal tax and let the states fight over the money.
is my state where my credit card address is? or is it where I reside? or where i was when I made the purchase? or where i might be at some future date if i preorder?
 
man they will continue to do whatever they can to try and get money from the game industry its fucking shameless. there was another state a while back i believe trying to put some kind of fat tax on games or something i think. its nothing more than another source of possible income to them. if they try to tax it people will stop buying it and game companies will just find a way around it.
 
[quote name='FloodsAreUponUS']Maybe we can put a tax on online play time.
12 hours of xbox live time= 2 dollars.[/QUOTE]oh helllll no! I leave my Xbox on all the time when I'm at home. It's pretty much my main device for listening to music and watching DVDs. It's always online from the second I turn it on, so who's to say what constitutes "play time" and what doesn't? I don't even wanna go there!
 
I don't pay taxes on PSN downloads since I'm from IN thankfully. :) I know NY, CA, OH, etc. get taxed on PSN purchases.
[quote name='OlDirtyBastard']
I'm not sure how PS3 cards work. I know you can charge your credit card to the precise amount of the download but are the prepaid cards points or money? If it is money then they will feel the double tax.[/QUOTE]Let me explain it. Stores are NOT suppose to tax on PSN Cards. Some do for a strange reason, but they are not suppose to. I know Meijer doesn't tax. There were some who got taxed twice (on the card and PSN). PSN Cards ARE currency, not points.
 
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If you buy a points card, you may/may not get taxed on that. Therefore, if you use that, you don't have to pay tax on it again. If you buy it directly through the internet, that's where the taxes come in.

I hate this state, always have, always will.
 
[quote name='vherub']paying taxes is patriotic, paying state taxes on transfers of goods online strikes me as contradictory to traditional sales taxes. If there is a tax, make it a flat federal tax and let the states fight over the money.
is my state where my credit card address is? or is it where I reside? or where i was when I made the purchase? or where i might be at some future date if i preorder?[/quote]


I don't agree with a flat federal tax but these are real good points your bring up. The best option that I can see is that you would be responsible for paying the DLC Sales Tax in the state that you legally reside in. So if you pay taxes and have a license in NJ then you would pay tax for you download according to NJ tax law.
 
Well, a couple things. First off, I don't think paying taxes is 'patriotic' in most senses. Sure, it helps the country, but you have every right to try and lower your tax bill (legally) to zero. That is tax laws are written. By the definitons of patriotic, if I didn't take a tax break, I would be more patriotic than others, when in reality, I would just be dumber.

Secondly, the real issue is how to enforce the tax laws. Technically, everything you buy online that they don't collect the tax, you are suppose to self submit. Most people don't, but they could. Now, if you are going to make companies collect, you have other issues. Companies like Amazon don't have tax professionals on staff to handle all of the sales tax filings in each state (let alone the inevitable audits that will occur). Companies that are nationwide have huge tax departments, and these departments run the company millions to maintain (and really don't bring money into the company). So, not only will you be paying taxes on the purchases, you'll pay higher prices to help absorb this overhead. These are the sticking points to why the internet isn't fully taxed now (some companies would literally collapse under this expense, and yes, I worked in a tax department for 5 years, which is why I know some of this).
 
I would love to pay taxes if my tax dollars weren't going largely to kill people I do not want killed. Maybe when the USA pays for something I actually want done with taxpayer money, I'd be willing. For now, fuck the USA.
 
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