Our friends in New Jersey are about to pay a little more for music on Apple's iTunes starting this week. A
sales tax will be added to iTunes digital downloads, stemming from the Governor's proposition this spring. The Governor had the smart idea to increase tax rates from 6 to 7 percent, and add this tax onto digital downloads to help the states budget deficit of $4.5 billion. The District of Columbia's residents are currently also paying taxes for media downloads, and there are rumors that other states may follow.
Tags: apple, dc, digital downloads, DigitalDownloads, download, governor, itunes, media, new jersey, NewJersey, sales tax, SalesTax, tax
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Comments
7
Subscribe to commentsMary ParOct 5th 2006 12:34PM
Better governor make companies pay more taxes, than take it from common user
SeanOct 5th 2006 7:44PM
Great idea, penalize the people who are downloading music legally. Way to support P2P file sharing gov'na'!
Nature of MathematicsOct 5th 2006 2:01PM
And where does the company's money come from if not the 'common' user? Does Steve Jobs just ante up with his personal bank account? No, it just adds a cost to what they're selling. What you pay for. Whether they pass it on to NJ in particular, or everyone over the long run, there is a cost, and the commoners pay it.
Beyond just the money, there are a couple of things this does-
1. Makes it more difficult for small companies to sell online in NJ. A programmer with an idea may not have the resources for all the sales tax compliance costs.
2. Makes it more diffidult for ALL companies to operate online in the US. There is a cost to regulation, and everybody pays it. And every time there is another exception, or different rule, or special case, it makes it more difficult and less likely that we'll see more interesting application and download sales on the Internet.
RickOct 5th 2006 4:01PM
Man, i liked living in new jersey so much better when our governor was taking it in the ass...
SJguyOct 5th 2006 10:35PM
Now that Corzine's in office WE'RE the ones taking it in the ass. Ahhh The Peopple's republic of New Jersey.
derrickOct 6th 2006 8:45AM
He also imposed the sales tax on rent paid for storage units. Now it's only a slight jump to sales tax on rent for an apartment.
Mustang News 2010Oct 10th 2006 4:57PM
Maybe they'll like it if everyone decides to go back to illegally downloaded music instead? Geez, these friggin politicians are always looking for a way to pick your pocket. If it were legal they'd walk around the city and take a few bucks of each persons wallet themselves.