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Radio News: Chicago to begin applying 'amusement tax' to web services

Jul 05, 2015 11:12 pm
Many American cities once taxed new fads such as jukeboxes and pinball machines with amusement taxes. Now Karl Bode at DSL Reports writes Chicago is about to start applying amusement taxes to Netflix, Spotify, Dropbox, Amazon Cloud and others. A nine percent tax on "electronically delivered amusements" and "nonpossessory computer leases" may bring $12 million to the city's coffers annually. "The amusement tax applies to charges paid for the privilege to witness, view or participate in an amusement," states the city's new ruling. "This includes not only charges paid for the privilege to witness, view or participate in amusements in person but also charges paid for the privilege to witness, view or participate in amusements that are delivered electronically."