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City of Philadelphia Wants Taxes from Personal Blogs
8/22/2010 | 
Posted by
MrsAshley
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Despite that most blogs rarely make enough money a month to pay for a trip to McDonalds, the city of Philadelphia has found a new method to make money from this: Apply taxes to blogs. Can you believe it?
According to the Philadelphia City Paper, Marilyn Bess, a Philadelphia resident who owns and operates a blog called MS Philly Organic. She blogs about green living and over the past few years her blog (and her contributed articles to ehow.com) have made about $50. Despite her insignificant income she has now been requested by the city government to fork over fees, licenses and taxes to the sound of $300! Bess received a letter from the city requiring her to pay $300 for a business privilege license and on top of that she has also been ordered to pay other taxes such as a pay wage tax, net profits tax and business privilege tax. What happened when Bess tried to reason with city officials? She was told to “hire an accountant.”
City Council members Bill Green and Maria Quinones-Sanchez were also outraged to hear stories like Bess' and have proposed a bill to reform the city’s business privilege tax. It will still require blogs to pay a privilege license if their websites are meant for profit purposes but they are proposing Philadelphia bloggers to pay a lifetime fee of $300 or $50 a year. As a blogger, I am in favor of the one time fee as opposed to the outrageous business license and taxes. Don't get me wrong though, I am an honest blogger, one who pays taxes on all the cash income I make and taxes on the retail value of the products I receive for review (which can add up with reviews like the Dyson & Keurig). I am beyond blessed to have the wonderful readers that I do which does turns into a few profitable ad sales but I truly love blogging and would continue doing it without pay if I had to, which was how I started out after all. Well, would you look at that! I went from writing a post full of frustration at PA's stingy taxes and ended up thankful for the opportunity to reach and interact with so many delightful women. I guess if I had to pay the fee it wouldn't be too bad after all. :-)
Despite that most blogs rarely make enough money a month to pay for a trip to McDonalds, the city of Philadelphia has found a new method to make money from this: Apply taxes to blogs. Can you believe it?According to the Philadelphia City Paper, Marilyn Bess, a Philadelphia resident who owns and operates a blog called MS Philly Organic. She blogs about green living and over the past few years her blog (and her contributed articles to ehow.com) have made about $50. Despite her insignificant income she has now been requested by the city government to fork over fees, licenses and taxes to the sound of $300! Bess received a letter from the city requiring her to pay $300 for a business privilege license and on top of that she has also been ordered to pay other taxes such as a pay wage tax, net profits tax and business privilege tax. What happened when Bess tried to reason with city officials? She was told to “hire an accountant.”
City Council members Bill Green and Maria Quinones-Sanchez were also outraged to hear stories like Bess' and have proposed a bill to reform the city’s business privilege tax. It will still require blogs to pay a privilege license if their websites are meant for profit purposes but they are proposing Philadelphia bloggers to pay a lifetime fee of $300 or $50 a year. As a blogger, I am in favor of the one time fee as opposed to the outrageous business license and taxes. Don't get me wrong though, I am an honest blogger, one who pays taxes on all the cash income I make and taxes on the retail value of the products I receive for review (which can add up with reviews like the Dyson & Keurig). I am beyond blessed to have the wonderful readers that I do which does turns into a few profitable ad sales but I truly love blogging and would continue doing it without pay if I had to, which was how I started out after all. Well, would you look at that! I went from writing a post full of frustration at PA's stingy taxes and ended up thankful for the opportunity to reach and interact with so many delightful women. I guess if I had to pay the fee it wouldn't be too bad after all. :-)
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1 comments:
I think that is a little crazy. I agree with you, i can see maybe paying a one time fee but not all the other stuff. That is just one more way the government is trying to get more money from all of us.
Carly
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