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[Tal Shiar Agent]

PA has a 6% sales tax that will now be applied to digital downloads such as ebooks, music, games, and apps. So make sure you've got the money in your digital wallets when you go to buy something now.

People from other states that already do this, how does it work with gift cards? If you were to buy a $20 PSN card at BestBuy would that card be taxed and would the purchase in the PS Store be taxed too? Or is it only one or the other?


http://wnep.com/2016/07/13/governor-wolf-signs-revenue-plan-for-2016-2017-budget/

 

[BriGuy]

A gift card would only be taxed when you bought goods with it.

 

[Schmitty]

Time for all residents of PA to change their region to Delaware

 

[n00bsauce87]

One of the few reasons I'm happy with my governor (Hogan-MD [R]) is that he would never pull this stunt. He's been a very quiet governor and doesn't even support Trump. Hey, it could be worse. Thank goodness the state house is Democrat ran.

 

[biggersmaller]

To cover all those state expenses required to make that download possible.

 

[SMattera]

You're not supposed to be taxed on gift cards.

I bought Xbox gift cards from Dell once, though, and they charged me sales tax. I complained to them and to the BBB, and went back and forth for months, but they never refunded me. So be careful where you shop.

 

[Effect]

I would imagine you're just taxed when you buy the product in the digital store. Nintendo already taxes for digital goods if you're in Pennsylvania. I think they might do it regardless of where you are in the US if you put down a US address. The eShop cards don't have taxes when you buy them as they're the same as gift cards I believe.

Now Amazon already took out tax above a certain amount also depending on what you buy. Software that was digitally downloaded you always got taxed. Not so with apps though. This being extended to ebooks is going to be a problem. The prices already are higher then they should compared to the physical copies. I hope this doesn't hit comics since those are even lower in price.

 

[Zyae]

One of the few reasons I'm happy with my governor (Hogan-MD [R]) is that he would never pull this stunt. He's been a very quiet governor and doesn't even support Trump. Hey, it could be worse. Thank goodness the state house is Democrat ran.

How is this a stunt? States need revenue to operate.

 

[BronsonLee]

Wow I just suddenly moved to Delaware, how weird

Wolf you goddamn flop

 

[Tal Shiar Agent]

Wow I just suddenly moved to Delaware, how weird

Wolf you goddamn flop

The entire state government is a fucking mess. They just tried to ban abortions after 20 weeks (rather than the 24 it was before) and refuse to properly fund education. It's a goddamn mess.

 

[Camjo-Z]

They didn't already do this?... Well, at least I won't notice the difference.

 

[MrSaturn99]

uhhhhhhhhh

guess I'll keep this in mind whenever I download music on iTunes

 

[Ray Wonder]

PA sucks. I hate it here.

 

[tw1164]

I'm confused. MS, Amazon and apple already charged sales tax.

 

[Tal Shiar Agent]

I'm confused. MS, Amazon and apple already charged sales tax.

If they have physical operations in the state they have to charge sales tax. Stuff like PlayStation and Microsoft don't have a physical presence so until now they didn't need to charge sales tax.

 

[Hari Seldon]

God damnit we pay enough fucking tax in this shithole state. Why the fuck do we have this huge ass state legislature and pay them ridiculous salaries compared to other states. We have like the 3rd highest gas tax in the nation despite having a fuck ton of shale gas. Fuck the state government.

So on steam you can just change your location and avoid the tax?

 

[Tal Shiar Agent]

God damnit we pay enough fucking tax in this shithole state. Why the fuck do we have this huge ass state legislature and pay them ridiculous salaries compared to other states. We have like the 3rd highest gas tax in the nation despite having a fuck ton of shale gas. Fuck the state government.

So on steam you can just change your location and avoid the tax?

If you buy wallet credits for online stores you should be able to change your address before purchasing to avoid the tax. I don't know about using PayPal rather than a credit card though.

 

[Affeinvasion]

This makes sense because I'm in the process of moving to PA right now. Sorry everybody!

 

[clockworkinyou]

F.

I want to move to the desert.

PA is junk.

 

[ElectricKaibutsu]

Glad the Steam sale was before this happened.

 

[The Cool One]

F.

I want to move to the desert.

PA is junk.

OH isn't any better

 

[higemaru]

Will this improve our roads. Or schools. please

 

[Manmademan]

God damnit we pay enough fucking tax in this shithole state.

no we don't. income tax is a flat 3.07%, and we don't tax retiree income at all.

Why the fuck do we have this huge ass state legislature and pay them ridiculous salaries

"legislature salaries" are absolutely nothing compared to what we actually spend money on in the state budget. If they all worked for free it would change nothing. The entire state complement (that is, how many people are actually working in state government as a whole) is at it's lowest point since sometime in the 1970s, and PA pays them a lot less than comparable states in the NE. Compare what PA pays state employees to jersey. There can be a 15-20K difference between the same position.

compared to other states. We have like the 3rd highest gas tax in the nation despite having a fuck ton of shale gas.

the two aren't related. Gas tax goes to fund road repair and infrastructure improvements- and state infrastructure is crumbling because we don't spend enough on it. Shale gas is an export pipeline for natural gas and has little to do with automobile gasoline. We should absolutely be taxing this, but blame republicans taking a lot of money from the industry for why we don't.

 

[higemaru]

The entire state government is a fucking mess. They just tried to ban abortions after 20 weeks (rather than the 24 it was before) and refuse to properly fund education. It's a goddamn mess.

idk, the bill failed by a pretty large gap (114-74 or something close to that). We've got issues with complacency and we've got no money but we're still holding up better than a lot of our neighbors as far as social progress goes.

And Wolf is an alright governor so far. He was opposed to the abortion bill for what that's worth.

 

[Manmademan]

idk, the bill failed by a pretty large gap (114-74 or something close to that). We've got issues with complacency and we've got no money but we're still holding up better than a lot of our neighbors as far as social progress goes.

And Wolf is an alright governor so far. He was opposed to the abortion bill for what that's worth.

The legislature knows that bill wasn't going anywhere, especially with Wolf in the governor's mansion. Strictly an election year stunt to pander to the yokels in the middle of the state.

 

[Tal Shiar Agent]

The legislature knows that bill wasn't going anywhere, especially with Wolf in the governor's mansion. Strictly an election year stunt to pander to the yokels in the middle of the state.

I'd use a harsher word than yokel.

 

[SonnyBoy]

One of the few reasons I'm happy with my governor (Hogan-MD [R]) is that he would never pull this stunt. He's been a very quiet governor and doesn't even support Trump. Hey, it could be worse. Thank goodness the state house is Democrat ran.

Yeah, he has been pretty decent.

 

[gcubed]

no we don't. income tax is a flat 3.07%, and we don't tax retiree income at all.



"legislature salaries" are absolutely nothing compared to what we actually spend money on in the state budget. If they all worked for free it would change nothing. The entire state complement (that is, how many people are actually working in state government as a whole) is at it's lowest point since sometime in the 1970s, and PA pays them a lot less than comparable states in the NE. Compare what PA pays state employees to jersey. There can be a 15-20K difference between the same position.



the two aren't related. Gas tax goes to fund road repair and infrastructure improvements- and state infrastructure is crumbling because we don't spend enough on it. Shale gas is an export pipeline for natural gas and has little to do with automobile gasoline. We should absolutely be taxing this, but blame republicans taking a lot of money from the industry for why we don't.

at least one person gets it. People complaining you get taxed too much in PA are a freaking joke.

While i think the entire "taxing" part of the budget is a load of Grade A horseshit that won't ever even see half of their projections, being taxed "too much" isn't an issue in PA.

We need to have democrats get their heads out of their asses and get rid of the PLCB and we need to have republicans get their heads out of their asses and tax shale. Its fucking embarrassing when even Texas taxes the shit. Its shame that the landmass portion of PA is occupied by slack jawed morons (is that better SG-17?) that get representation based on land and not based on population.

 

[Jebusman]

Be thankful your sales tax is only 6%.

Here in Nova Scotia (Canada), there's a 15% HST on just about everything. It makes buying just about anything even more expensive than it already is for us Canadians.

I know for the most part that most online services already typically charged tax here (Nintendo does, I don't think Sony does, amazon tends to charge tax on an item by item basis it seems like), but boy that must be a fun time for the backend guys at those companies having to charge/not charge tax on a state by state basis.

 

[Syraxith]

How is this a stunt? States need revenue to operate.

States should look into cutting wasteful spending before introducing new taxes.

 

[Patrick S.]

Be thankful your sales tax is only 6%.

Here in Nova Scotia (Canada), there's a 15% HST on just about everything. It makes buying just about anything even more expensive than it already is for us Canadians.

Be thankful your sales tax is only 15%.

Here in Germany, it's 19% on almost everything

 

[n00bsauce87]

How is this a stunt? States need revenue to operate.

States should look into cutting wasteful spending before introducing new taxes.

Pretty much this and this is one option of a few. Other options are getting fees and taxes from other places. i.e. tobacco taxes. I'm not against taxes, but you already are putting sales tax on online goods shipped to MD, I don't need it to affect my digital sales.

Yeah, he has been pretty decent.

Most definately

 

[YoungFa]

States should look into cutting wasteful spending before introducing new taxes.

Lets cut spending on education.

 

[theechrisfox]

Will this improve our roads. Or schools. please

Good one.

 

[Sweeney Tom]

Good thing I move to MD next year

 

[Matsukaze]

Good thing I'm moving out of state in a couple months.

Will this improve our roads. Or schools. please

Our state legislature:

 

[Kieli]

To cover all those state expenses required to make that download possible.

uh..... what?

 

[Already Torn]

One of the few reasons I'm happy with my governor (Hogan-MD [R]) is that he would never pull this stunt. He's been a very quiet governor and doesn't even support Trump. Hey, it could be worse. Thank goodness the state house is Democrat ran.

Hey, that's where I'm moving to from PA!

 

[theechrisfox]

uh..... what?

Someone has to cover the taxes that Comcast is so good at evading.

 

[Hari Seldon]

no we don't. income tax is a flat 3.07%, and we don't tax retiree income at all.



"legislature salaries" are absolutely nothing compared to what we actually spend money on in the state budget. If they all worked for free it would change nothing. The entire state complement (that is, how many people are actually working in state government as a whole) is at it's lowest point since sometime in the 1970s, and PA pays them a lot less than comparable states in the NE. Compare what PA pays state employees to jersey. There can be a 15-20K difference between the same position.



the two aren't related. Gas tax goes to fund road repair and infrastructure improvements- and state infrastructure is crumbling because we don't spend enough on it. Shale gas is an export pipeline for natural gas and has little to do with automobile gasoline. We should absolutely be taxing this, but blame republicans taking a lot of money from the industry for why we don't.

Our income tax is reasonable because the property taxes are monstrous. We pay a HUGE gas tax, huge property tax, but ok income tax. It does not average out. And yes, I do blame the entire state legislature for most of the problems because for some reason we have a professional politician class in PA that gets paid full salaries and pensions. Other states treat their state politicians like township supervisors and give them a small stipend and nothing else. Taxes are just too damn high in PA.

 

[tokkun]

no we don't. income tax is a flat 3.07%, and we don't tax retiree income at all.

You may not tax retiree income, but you tax contributions that are exempt in most other states. Basically the state treats all contributions to tax-advantaged accounts as if they were Roth contributions. This is probably worse for the taxpayer on the whole, since it removes choice and the ability to optimize for your situation.

Low state income tax is also coupled with high municipal taxes in some cities.

 

[God Dayumm]

uh..... what?

I assume he means telecomm infrastructure. Which would be fair enough if the extra taxes on phone plans did not exist

 

[InfernoNR]

Just dropping in to say hello to my fellow PA GAF members and say this sucks, unless it's going to something that will be improved. I do love where I live, though

 

[Norris1020]

Well, at least y'all don't have to pay tax on most groceries and clothes.

 

[God Dayumm]

Just dropping in to say hello to my fellow PA GAF members and say this sucks, unless it's going to something that will be improved. I do love where I live, though

We should all meet up and protest

Spoiler

by getting drunk and playing smash bros

 

[Tal Shiar Agent]

Just dropping in to say hello to my fellow PA GAF members and say this sucks, unless it's going to something that will be improved. I do love where I live, though

Great joke. PennDot barely get any money for projects, and when they do they drag out construction as long as possible. They are projecting 12 years to build a short highway bypass. 12 years.

 

[InfernoNR]

We should all meet up and protest

Spoiler

by getting drunk and playing smash bros

Or duck game!

Great joke. PennDot barely get any money for projects, and when they do they drag out construction as long as possible. They are projecting 12 years to build a short highway bypass. 12 years.

Yeah, I know. It's absolutely terrible where I'm at, especially the road my work is on. *shudders*

 

[Tal Shiar Agent]

Or duck game!



Yeah, I know. It's absolutely terrible where I'm at, especially the road my work is on. *shudders*

They have 12 miles of highway to build. The original projection was 9 years but they ran into issues with the EPA because of a bridge over a river and it was pushed back to 12 years.

 

[AbortedWalrusFetus]

I'm ok with this. The money is being used to fund public schools and help fight opiate addiction. I already pay 6% (actually 8%) on all other purchases so 6% on digital purchases makes sense.

Generally speaking I'm not for regressive forms of taxation, but with the condition the PA state legislature is in getting a good tax policy change is next to impossible. It's especially difficult because the state constitution doesn't allow for progressive taxation. This is a reasonable compromise, but not as good as say a fracking tax would have been.

 

[Mengy]

Wow I just suddenly moved to Delaware, how weird

Wolf you goddamn flop

How about it, Wolf has been horrible so far. I've been in PA my whole life but the older I get the more I hate this state.

Great joke. PennDot barely get any money for projects, and when they do they drag out construction as long as possible. They are projecting 12 years to build a short highway bypass. 12 years.

I have a friend who is a Penndot supervisor, they purposefully drag out projects in order to collect more money from the state for longer periods. The entire way Penndot is set up is terrible and it drastically needs an overhaul, it's hugely corrupt and inefficient with respect to our tax revenues.