wraggster
January 29th, 2009, 19:45
State legislators in North Carolina are proposing a state sales tax on all digital purchases in an effort to boost the Tar Heel State's balance sheet, according to a report today by the Entertainment Consumers Association's blog GamePolitics.com.
The post cites a report by a local TV news station, News 14, which spoke to North Carolina State Rep. Paul Luebke (D-Durham) about the proposed tax.
"We used to think of everything in terms of being tangible. Nobody thought of how you could possibly download anything," Luebke explained to the station. "So if you buy a book in a bookstore, you're going to have to pay sales tax on it. If you're downloading a book from a book seller, you should have to pay sales tax on that as well."
The proposal is still in its early stages, but researchers estimate that taxing music, video games, movies, books and software downloads in the state could generate about $12 million during the next fiscal year. Many in the state would likely welcome the extra cash, but not everyone is dusting off their rubber stamps just yet.
"We would be concerned about any kind of new taxes in this economy," Brooks Raiford, president and CEO of the North Carolina Technology Association, told the station. "The consumer is already very highly taxed, the economy is stretched. All we're asking is that those considerations be taken carefully and that the industry be asked for their input as the legislation is finalized."
The NCTA represents, among other game-related companies, Cary, N.C.-based Epic Games, which picked up the organization's 2008 Top Industry Driven Technology Company of the Year Award.
A similar proposal was floated in New York state last year by Democratic Gov. David Paterson, who sought to tack a tax onto digital downloads as part of a larger $121 billion budget plan. In the budget proposal, it's described not as an additional tax but as an effort to close the "digital property taxation loophole."
The measure is still under consideration. Such taxes are already standard in Canada and the United Kingdom.
http://uk.pc.ign.com/articles/949/949138p1.html
The post cites a report by a local TV news station, News 14, which spoke to North Carolina State Rep. Paul Luebke (D-Durham) about the proposed tax.
"We used to think of everything in terms of being tangible. Nobody thought of how you could possibly download anything," Luebke explained to the station. "So if you buy a book in a bookstore, you're going to have to pay sales tax on it. If you're downloading a book from a book seller, you should have to pay sales tax on that as well."
The proposal is still in its early stages, but researchers estimate that taxing music, video games, movies, books and software downloads in the state could generate about $12 million during the next fiscal year. Many in the state would likely welcome the extra cash, but not everyone is dusting off their rubber stamps just yet.
"We would be concerned about any kind of new taxes in this economy," Brooks Raiford, president and CEO of the North Carolina Technology Association, told the station. "The consumer is already very highly taxed, the economy is stretched. All we're asking is that those considerations be taken carefully and that the industry be asked for their input as the legislation is finalized."
The NCTA represents, among other game-related companies, Cary, N.C.-based Epic Games, which picked up the organization's 2008 Top Industry Driven Technology Company of the Year Award.
A similar proposal was floated in New York state last year by Democratic Gov. David Paterson, who sought to tack a tax onto digital downloads as part of a larger $121 billion budget plan. In the budget proposal, it's described not as an additional tax but as an effort to close the "digital property taxation loophole."
The measure is still under consideration. Such taxes are already standard in Canada and the United Kingdom.
http://uk.pc.ign.com/articles/949/949138p1.html