As of July 1, 2015, citizens of Chicago who enjoy their Netflix, Spotify, Pandora, Amazon Prime, Xbox Live, and/or PlayStation Network subscriptions are now subject to the city’s 9 percent “tax

[outlawauron]

binary solo said:

outlawauron said:

binary solo said:

I don't live in Europe.

And? I didn't say you did.

You see complaints about the price differences, etc pretty often. It has everything to do with taxes in those regions. If that can warrant complaint, then the first time a city tries to do something completely new that could affect video game prices, then it's noteworthy.

You were replying to me and mentioned prices in Europe, so I thought you were assuming I live in Europe.

I thought consumption taxes were very common in US states and cities as the principle means for states and cities to get tax revenue. Shouldn't all video game prices be subject to those taxes in the states where consumption taxes are used? Doesn't seem like news to me that a consumption tax is being applied to a service when I imagine consumption taxes are being applied to other services in Chigago / Illinois. As people have observed, they already pay tax for their internet service, so it's not such a new phenomenon as people make out.

The taxes you pay for internet service are not a full 9% and typically not on the entire cost of the service. The ISPs only charge you tax because they have local offices and teams in said city or state that would owe tax to the state they do business in.

Digital services have no people or no offices that would subject to taxes. No one pays taxes on Amazon, Netflix, Hulu, PSN, XBL, etc. unless they have an office or distribution center in your state.