Batshit crazy. I don't even hold out any hope that the road I referenced earlier will be fixed anytime soon
-
Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.
Pennsylvania to start taxing Digital Downloads
- Thread starter Tal Shiar Agent
- Start date
- Status
Batshit crazy. I don't even hold out any hope that the road I referenced earlier will be fixed anytime soon
You guys posting about how bad PA is, don't ever move to NY. I moved here from PA for work and the government here is awful. 8% sales tax, and very few breaks on it (PA doesn't tax on food or clothes). Property taxes are astronomical compared to PA. Income tax is very high. Basically everything is banned. You guys still have it good.
flaxknuckles
Member
Absolutely disgusting. People already get enough taxes taken out of their paychecks.
Concrete Charlie
Member
Pennsylvania is pretty fucking great. I get you aren't thrilled about getting your downloads taxed but that doesn't turn the entire state into a flaming pile of shit.
it seems an odd distinction to make though - does that mean if you buy something from Amazon, and they don't have a distribution centre in your state, you don't pay sales tax?
I always figured its basically a consumption tax so it seems reasonable to pay it on all 'luxury' goods whether physical or digital.
Am I remembering wrong or has Nintendo always collected sales tax on eshop purchases? I'm in PA and recall them always collecting it. It will be a bummer when Steam starts since I will need to sell 6% more cards during steam sales before I can buy something, but if it means schools get proper funding (I know, fat chance) then so be it.
Hari Seldon
Member
How about selling weed out of the state stores instead of this. We employ alcohol salesmen and pay them about 200% what they would make in reality. Might as well use these overqualified employees to sell drugs and actually follow all of the rules.
TheOrangeKid007
Member
More $$ for the black hole that is "education". PA politicians love to use that. It still amazes me why anyone would want to live in Philadelphia county, that taxes being what they are.
Just stay away from tolls on I-80.
And please don't talk about the roads, Pa is horrible, second only to Michigan in my experience.
Just stay away from tolls on I-80.
And please don't talk about the roads, Pa is horrible, second only to Michigan in my experience.
Already Torn
Banned
It's just the middle parts, and basically all the western parts too once you drive 20 minutes out of Pittsburgh. It's a state known for one of its cities being a literal flaming pile of shit.
Nintendo has always hit me with taxes, and even a recent Overwatch purchase from Blizzard tried to as well here in PA so this is nothing new anyhow. I just switch my address or zip code to a DE one (my father's girlfriend lives in DE anyway so I could just use hers if I wanted to).
My eShop zipcode has been a DE zipcode for the past 5 years. I always buy Steam/eShop etc cards at retail. PA taxing Amazon was a bigger deal for me, I've dropped my Amazon purchases a good 85% since that took effect a few years ago since being an Amazon customer from way back in 1998. Not being taxed for a game was always a nice perk on top of any kind of discount they had but if a new 3DS game is say $39? Forget it...may as well just drive a few miles down to DE to grab it now and skip Amazon.
My eShop zipcode has been a DE zipcode for the past 5 years. I always buy Steam/eShop etc cards at retail. PA taxing Amazon was a bigger deal for me, I've dropped my Amazon purchases a good 85% since that took effect a few years ago since being an Amazon customer from way back in 1998. Not being taxed for a game was always a nice perk on top of any kind of discount they had but if a new 3DS game is say $39? Forget it...may as well just drive a few miles down to DE to grab it now and skip Amazon.
WhiteWaterM00se
Member
I've lived in this state for five years, and I'm thoroughly unimpressed. I now own a home here, and think the taxes are outrageous.
The states' real problem is there is way too many people on social programs in PA. PA should be more heavy handed with that. It is one of the main reasons PA has such budget problems. Its sad too, alot of PA is beautiful.
Simply Sarah
Member
That's not actually how it works. You own taxes regardless, it's just that, based on some old Supreme Court cases involving mail order sales, states are/were prevented from requiring sellers to collect the sales tax at the time of sale. Instead, buyers are expected to declare the amount of such purchases to the state and pay the sales tax directly. There's a good chance there's a field for it on your state income tax form (if your state has one). So people in all states with sales taxes have always had to pay them when buying from Amazon or other online sellers, it's just that most don't know that and most that do still don't do it.
Edit: And yes, that's means everyone bitching about losing their "Amazon discount" once Amazon started collecting taxes in their state is complaining that they can't easily tax evade now.
Manmademan
Member
This is a local issue, that revenue doesn't go to the state. Urban areas with high property values get hit pretty hard with this, but property in the central, more rural parts is so dirt cheap it's barely an issue. There's a town a quarter mile from me that has property taxes exactly HALF of what I pay, because they have enough business income coming in to offset the need. Again, local issue.
Property tax reform has been up for discussion a number of times- rendell tried this one as did Wolf. never goes anywhere.
because once again, we have a low flat tax on income and don't tax retiree income. There are exactly 15 states with lower income tax, and seven of those have an income tax of zero. We don't tax clothing here. We didn't even tax lottery winnings until yesterday. Given the size of the state and the amount of road/bridge infrastructure that needs to be paid for its obvious why your gas tax is high.
not sure how many times I have to explain it. property tax is 100% local. none of that goes into the general budget, and how much you get hit with depends entirely on the part of the state you're in. And a low state income tax is WHY your property tax is high, since the state has been cutting back on education funding for years, forcing local school districts to hike taxes repeatedly to make up the difference.
you may want to look at how states of similar size and complexity actually handle government. PA is 6th largest in the country. You can't run it like Wyoming. But this is pointless, since "politician salaries" are an insignificant amount of the money that goes into the budget. Even if you DID pay them all like "township supervisors" it would change exactly nothing about how high your gas and property taxes are.
here's the 14-15 budget
AuthenticM
Member
Why weren't they taxed before? Why should the way you purchase something matters for taxation?
Manmademan
Member
back when the internet was new, the general opinion was that no e-commerce should be taxed, to encourage the technology to get off the ground. Obviously this theory has outlived its usefulness, but there are still quite a few means to purchase things online that would be taxed if you got them any other way.
good question. remove all e-commerce tax exemptions entirely and charge it 6% or so like everything else.
AuthenticM
Member
Hmm, that was a good thing. But in 2016, like you said, I think it's outlived its usefulness. The Internet is here to stay, so everything and everyone should be taxed.
Smokey_Run
Member
Great. I'm sure this will be put to good use... oh wait, it won't.
Glad someone gets it.This is a local issue, that revenue doesn't go to the state. Urban areas with high property values get hit pretty hard with this, but property in the central, more rural parts is so dirt cheap it's barely an issue. There's a town a quarter mile from me that has property taxes exactly HALF of what I pay, because they have enough business income coming in to offset the need. Again, local issue.
Property tax reform has been up for discussion a number of times- rendell tried this one as did Wolf. never goes anywhere.
because once again, we have a low flat tax on income and don't tax retiree income. There are exactly 15 states with lower income tax, and seven of those have an income tax of zero. We don't tax clothing here. We didn't even tax lottery winnings until yesterday. Given the size of the state and the amount of road/bridge infrastructure that needs to be paid for its obvious why your gas tax is high.
not sure how many times I have to explain it. property tax is 100% local. none of that goes into the general budget, and how much you get hit with depends entirely on the part of the state you're in. And a low state income tax is WHY your property tax is high, since the state has been cutting back on education funding for years, forcing local school districts to hike taxes repeatedly to make up the difference.
you may want to look at how states of similar size and complexity actually handle government. PA is 6th largest in the country. You can't run it like Wyoming. But this is pointless, since "politician salaries" are an insignificant amount of the money that goes into the budget. Even if you DID pay them all like "township supervisors" it would change exactly nothing about how high your gas and property taxes are.
here's the 14-15 budget
also all y'all complaining about the gas tax need to get like me and not drive.
rokkerkory
Member
What a liberal state
Tal Shiar Agent
Banned
I feel like gas is pretty cheap at the $2.25 regular where I live in PA.
Idk if I'd say it's cheap (now, NJ... THAT'S cheap), but it's always seemed fair.
I wouldn't mind the tax if it actually fixed our budget problems but it won't, it'll just be one more tax with many more to come.
Our new budget has a 200 million loan from a state medical malpractice fund, there's potentially 100 million this fall from one time license fees for online gambling and raising tobacco tax from $1.60 a pack to $2.60 a pack which is a revenue source that will dry up over time.
I think we now have the highest overall (local and fed) gas tax in the nation at 68.80 cents a gallon, we have the highest diesel at 88.50 cents, second highest corporate income tax rate (I think) and yet of all the major fracking states we don't have a extraction tax because god forbid we levy anything against that.
So instead a digital download tax that is only expected to raise 47 million.
Our budget is like our potholes, its a bunch of temporary patches to fill in the holes with repair crews running around doing permanent repairs later but its never enough.
Our new budget has a 200 million loan from a state medical malpractice fund, there's potentially 100 million this fall from one time license fees for online gambling and raising tobacco tax from $1.60 a pack to $2.60 a pack which is a revenue source that will dry up over time.
I think we now have the highest overall (local and fed) gas tax in the nation at 68.80 cents a gallon, we have the highest diesel at 88.50 cents, second highest corporate income tax rate (I think) and yet of all the major fracking states we don't have a extraction tax because god forbid we levy anything against that.
So instead a digital download tax that is only expected to raise 47 million.
Our budget is like our potholes, its a bunch of temporary patches to fill in the holes with repair crews running around doing permanent repairs later but its never enough.
- Status