Chicago PlayStation Users Furious They Must Now Pay A 9% "Amusement Tax"

[Swordsmyth]

When they powered up their Playstations on Nov. 9, Gamers in the Windy City were furious to learn that they will now need to fork over a 9% levy to the city every time they pay for any of a suit of online services as Chicago steps up enforcement of its supremely unpopular Amusement Tax, which was expanded in 2015 to cover video games, streaming services and other digital-entertainment mediums. While some companies have resisted what they have decried as an overreach by city tax collectors, who are desperately trying to plug a massive budget hole while supporting some of the most under-funded public pensions in the country, Sony has become the latest video gaming company to acquiesce to the city's demands. Meanwhile, Nintendo and Microsoft (which owns Xbox) have been collecting the levies since 2015.

According to the Chicago Tribune, the city’s amusement tax once only applied to concerts and sporting event tickets, but several streaming companies like Netflix and Hulu have bowed to the city's demands since the levy was first expanded. Apple, on the other hand, filed a lawsuit against the city back in August alleging that the tax on its streaming service was "illegal and discriminatory". The company isn't paying the tax while the case works its way through a Cook County court.
Previously, a group of streaming companies including Netflix, Amazon Prime, Spotify, XBox Live and Hulu sued Chicago back in 2015 alleging that the tax was in violation of federal law. However, the judge ruled in the city’s favor in May. After an appeal, the case is awaiting a ruling from an appellate court.
Bill McCaffrey, a spokesman for the city’s Law Department, told the Tribune that the city "uniformly enforces the amusement tax," and neglected to address the outcry.

"If a business is not collecting the tax where we believe it applies, the city takes the necessary steps and works with the company to ensure compliance with the law," he said.

The tax will now apply PlayStation subscription services, like PlayStation Now, PlayStation Plus, and PlayStation Music. Regular game purchases from the PlayStation store are untouched by the tax.

More at: https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-...-amusement-tax

[fedupinmo]

Chicago... so full of Win.

[oyarde]

I support a 100 percent chicago playstation tax . Nine percent is chump change . Go big or go home chicago .

[oyarde]

[TheCount]

Isn't this a defensive tariff?

[Anti Federalist]

Hah Hah.

You voted for it assenholes.

[brushfire]

fking tyrants

[Swordsmyth]

Isn't this a defensive tariff?

No.

Who is tariffing Chicago's exports?

[nobody's_hero]

Isn't this a defensive tariff?

Not sure why you're bringing that up in every thread recently. It's like you're trying to make a point but kind of failing miserably.

Circuit breaker for the fridge got tripped during the night? That's just like tariffs.

Give it a rest man.

[CaptainAmerica]

what a piece of SHI_T city...and all of them are moving to arizona. please can they stay there....and do something about their own stupid city.

[ThePaleoLibertarian]

This is bull$#@!, of course, but I can't help but gloat a bit. Steam, baby! PC wins again!

[TheTexan]

alleging that the tax was in violation of federal law

What federal law would that be? It certainly wouldn't be the constitution.

[TheTexan]

fking tyrants

It's only 9%. Everyone knows tyranny starts at ~62%

(for example, a 40%+ income tax is well within "reasonable" territory)

[TheCount]

No.

Who is tariffing Chicago's exports?

Chicago's tariff on imports of entertainment cancels out Georgia's subsidy on the production of entertainment.

[phill4paul]

Not sure why you're bringing that up in every thread recently. It's like you're trying to make a point but kind of failing miserably.

Circuit breaker for the fridge got tripped during the night? That's just like tariffs.

Give it a rest man.

[EBounding]

Isn't this a defensive tariff?

Not sure why you're bringing that up in every thread recently. It's like you're trying to make a point but kind of failing miserably.

Circuit breaker for the fridge got tripped during the night? That's just like tariffs.

Give it a rest man.

Yeah, stop making fun of tariffs. They're awesome.

[brushfire]

It's only 9%. Everyone knows tyranny starts at ~62%

(for example, a 40%+ income tax is well within "reasonable" territory)

You make a very good point. And after all, its for the children. I feel so ashamed.

[acptulsa]

Chicago's tariff on imports of entertainment cancels out Georgia's subsidy on the production of entertainment.

SCTV needs protection! They've got to find a way to get people out of the house and on the El!

[TheCount]

Not sure why you're bringing that up in every thread recently. It's like you're trying to make a point but kind of failing miserably.

Circuit breaker for the fridge got tripped during the night? That's just like tariffs.

Give it a rest man.

Might I suggest an alternative picture for a broken record who really just needs to give it a rest and stop talking about this same topic over and over again?



It's really tiring; dude has not shut up about it for years.

[phill4paul]

Might I suggest an alternative picture for a broken record who really just needs to give it a rest and stop talking about this same topic over and over again?



It's really tiring; dude has not shut up about it for years.

No one agrees with every politician 100%. Do you believe, like Ron Paul, that our troops should be brought home and placed along the border?

[agitator]

No.

Who is tariffing Chicago's exports?

Why do u always respond to the trolls here? It just encourages them.

[agitator]

Not sure why you're bringing that up in every thread recently. It's like you're trying to make a point but kind of failing miserably.

Circuit breaker for the fridge got tripped during the night? That's just like tariffs.

Give it a rest man.

Best to just ignore the mentally handicapped.

[acptulsa]

Why do u always respond to the trolls here? It just encourages them.

Trolls playing ping pong ties a forum right up. That's why they do it for hours on end.

[nobody's_hero]

Yeah, stop making fun of tariffs. They're awesome.

I wouldn't put it that way. But I was expecting doomsday prophecies to come true by "free market" think tanks, but what I see are businesses returning to the U.S., more job openings than unemployed people, and people getting off their asses and going to work again instead of sitting at home on food stamps. One can argue that this would have happened with or without tariffs, but that's kind of like trying to prove a negative at this point.

Thanks to China and Canada's trade war, we do have too much milk and soybeans now, which, I suppose means more flatulence. A tragedy no doubt.

Anyway there's a thread on this already that Swordsmyth updates like every 5 minutes, if you can get a word in there it might fit in more than a thread about Chicago being, well, Chicago.

[osan]

Cry me a river.

For one thing, who gives a poo about stupid ass video games? Yeah, they can be fun, but so what? There is nothing important in them. Not a whit. So either stop playing if the taxes are so offensive, or STFU and go on like the junkies most of those people are. I see little difference in principle between video addicts and the crack ho' who puts penises of questionable provenance into their mouths for token sums.

If you have no self-respect, that's fine. Just don't try to make it the John's fault. Nobody's got a gun to your head.

Humans.

[DamianTV]

Money Printing is Counterfeiting

Yes, this does relate to "Amusement Tax". First, we need to understand how our money works, as simply as it can be put:

• Monetary Policy - "Print" The Money (via Loans)
• Fiscal Policy - "Destroy" the Money (via Taxation)

All money printed must be destroyed. Every dollar in your pocket and bank acct represents someones debt to someone else. Welfare is no different, but instead of that Debt representing one person, it represents everyone who uses the US Dollar by using Inflation as an Invisible Tax on the Value of that dollar.

This "Amusement Tax" falls under the category of Fiscal Policy. It destroys the money, just as paying off a loan returns that money to the state it existed in initially, which was nothing. But back up two seconds, remember that Banks do NOT loan money they have, they create it out of thin air with the Magic of Fractional Reserve Lending. This is LEGAL COUNTERFEITING. What makes that Legal is the fact that the Repayment of that Loan does not allow that money to remain in existence.

There are two ways to "Destroy Money". Pay off a loan, and Taxes. Your Federal Income Tax payments made out to the IRS are used to pay the INTEREST that the US owes to the Federal Reserve Bank for use of its money. Thus, paying Taxes, indirectly, is a Loan Payment, and that money is subsequently also destroyed.

The idea of an "Amusement Tax" is made by rulers who are issuing Behavior Modification by issuance of Fines and Levies. They think that an Amusement Tax will generate revenue. They are partly right, and partly wrong. What they are really doing is merely applying the Belief, Money, Violence paradigm. If you "Believe" their words, then Amusement is a Behavioral Sin, which is sufficient grounds to punish people for partaking, thus, applying Money. Im quite sure if you avoid paying your Amusement Tax, they will apply Violence, by way of Imprisonment, thus completing the paradigm. Sadly, it falls perfectly into the Mental Trap that Taxation provides rewards of "improved" behaviors and receiving something of commensurate value in exchange. This is nothing more than an indication that the Govt spends far more than it takes in.

The Payouts can also come from Welfare. Give out too much in Welfare, and create new taxes to prevent the Money Supply from Hyperinflating.

The Life Cycle of the US Dollar as a Fiat Currency, and the World Reserve Fiat Currency is coming to an end. I would expect to see one of two things as a consequence:

• Increases in both Welfare and Taxation
• Introduction of New Forms of Taxation

The system is unbalanced and will remain unbalanced because those with the power to print the money have the power to print something else without consequence: Interest. Interest is inherently as dishonest as Counterfeiting because our money is Backed By Debt, so if you can "just print interest" then you can "just print debt" and "debt = money". Those with the power to Print Money, the Banks, will end up with Everything and you will end up with Nothing. The system will continue to function by bleeding out the value of the currency issued. Since you and I can not "just print money / debt", you and I are stuck holding the same quantity of money, which becomes more and more worthless. If this system could continue, in 100 years, the very idea of "Dollar Menu" or "Dollar Store" will adapt to reflect the value of the dollar, and we would end up with the "100 Dollar Store" or "100 Dollar Menu". Yes, the worst hamburgers imaginable would cost over a hundred bucks, in a hundred years, if this system did not collapse under its own weight.

Ignorance of the nature of Coin and Credit has gotten us into this mess, and expect to see more new taxes like it as an effort to keep a failed concept going, transferring everything from the people to the Money Changers. Even your elected leaders barely understand this. Perhaps it is time for New Leaders? Since we know "youre not voting hard enough" never fixes the issue, perhaps that New Leader should be YOU?

[Philhelm]

Are you not entertained?

[pcosmar]

Amused.

[Ender]

Cry me a river.

For one thing, who gives a poo about stupid ass video games? Yeah, they can be fun, but so what? There is nothing important in them. Not a whit. So either stop playing if the taxes are so offensive, or STFU and go on like the junkies most of those people are. I see little difference in principle between video addicts and the crack ho' who puts penises of questionable provenance into their mouths for token sums.

If you have no self-respect, that's fine. Just don't try to make it the John's fault. Nobody's got a gun to your head.

Humans.

Unless you're Ender Wiggins who saved the earth with video games.

These taxes are most likely unconstitutional which most taxes are- so we should all be somewhat concerned that everything is getting additional taxes upon taxes upon taxes.

[Swordsmyth]

Chicago's tariff on imports of entertainment cancels out Georgia's subsidy on the production of entertainment.

What subsidy?

Furthermore even if your characterization was correct there are two problems:

1 The Constitution prohibits the states from taxing interstate commerce and even if that weren't the case or shouldn't be the case we must abide by the rules until they can be changed. (that is why they didn't make it a tariff, game services based in the state or the city are not exempted)

2 That which is permissible isn't always advisable, Chicago and Illinois already overtax their residents and they didn't cut other taxes and shift to a tariff.