Philadelphia Charging Bloggers $300 for Business License

Andy Chalk

One Flag, One Fleet, One Cat
Nov 12, 2002
45,698
1
0
Philadelphia Charging Bloggers $300 for Business License


Bloggers in the city of Philadelphia could find themselves on the hook for a $300 "business privilege license" if they have revenue-generating ads on their sites, even if they only bring in a few dollars a year.

Most blogs are labors of love. They're an outlet for frustration and creativity, an opportunity for people to babble about their favorite topic or vent about whatever's on their nerves and, for the vast majority of those who keep them, an absolutely terrible way to make money. The City of Brotherly Love has found a way to make some bucks from them, however. It's begun charging bloggers $300 for a "business privilege license" if they have ads on their sites, no matter how paltry the amount they bring in.

Marilyn Bess, who keeps the ehow.com [http://msphillyorganic.wordpress.com/], received a letter from the city in May demanding $300 for a license. She estimates she's brought in about $50 over the past few years. "The real kick in the pants is that I don't even have a full-time job, so for the city to tell me to pony up $300 for a business privilege license, pay wage tax, business privilege tax, net profits tax on a handful of money is outrageous," she said.

When she appealed the matter to the city, she added, "I was told to hire an accountant."

Sean Barry, the man behind Circle of Fits [http://seanoandjefe.blogspot.com/] on Blogspot, found himself in a similar situation. His blog carries two ads and has brought in about $11 in two years, but the city is nonetheless insisting that he pay for a license. "Personally, I don't think Circle of Fits is a business," he said. "It might be someday if I start selling coffee mugs, key chains or locks of my hair to my fans. I don't think blogs should be taxed unless they are making an immense profit."

But in the eyes of the city, if money is being made then the piper must be paid. Andrea Mannino of the Philadelphia Department of Revenue said that the mere presence of ads qualifies a blog a business, regardless of how much it makes. Furthermore, the city considers bloggers to be the same as freelance writers and requires them not only to pay for a license, but also to pay tax on their profits, on top of their regular state and federal taxes.

A proposed update to the law would eliminate the tax on the first $100,000 of profit but would still require bloggers to purchase a license. City Councilor Bill Green, one of the council members who put forth the proposal, suggested that bloggers who didn't want to cough up $300 for a lifetime business privilege license could instead opt for a $50 yearly plan.

Source: Hard|OCP [http://citypaper.net/articles/2010/08/19/blogging-business-privilege-tax-philadelphia]



Permalink
 

RogueDarkJedi

New member
Dec 28, 2008
224
0
0
As a blogger myself, I think this is a terrible idea. Everyone knows that ads very rarely pay out, and even then it's not enough to actually buy anything (except maybe some food).

What an idiot.

Edit: Since most free blog services put ads on the page, wouldn't you then have to pay for a license (even if it is the host's ads and not yours)? The city would be silencing your right to free speech. Or does it not work that way? Either way, this law will probably not last very long.

Edit 2: You can't have your own ads on your Wordpress.com blogs, unless you get 25k+ page views/month or whatever (as a part of Ad Control [http://en.support.wordpress.com/advertising/]). As both linked blogs are on free hosts, this means if you don't get a lot of page views to be in the Ad Control program (or pay for VIP, which I'm sure the lady with the wordpress.com blog doesn't have) then the city has stepped waaaaaaaaaay too far over the line and is violating the first amendment (I'm not a lawyer or providing legal advice, just assessing the situation).

Someone is in quite a bit of trouble.
 

Shru1kan

New member
Dec 10, 2009
813
0
0
This is absurd. Don't they know that the money the ads bring in probably just barely pay to keep the domain? Didn't realize simple hobbies were so damned expensive.
 

CoverYourHead

High Priest of C'Thulhu
Dec 7, 2008
2,514
0
0
Oh that's just pathetic. As far as I know, most bloggers use whatever small revenue generated from the ads to pay to keep their website up, not to turn a profit. And then having to pay income tax as well is just silly.

It's like shutting down a kid's lemonade stand in the summer because they don't have a license, then taxing them.
 

Heart of Darkness

The final days of His Trolliness
Jul 1, 2009
9,745
0
0
...I did not realize that the economy is still this bad. When a city starts trying to wring out $300.02 from bloggers, of all people, then it's probably time for a city to fire their current accountant and get a new one.

Really, this is just insane. The City of Brotherly Love just got a little less brotherly--or more, depending on personal brotherly relationships.
 

cobrausn

New member
Dec 10, 2008
413
0
0
CoverYourHead said:
It's like shutting down a kid's lemonade stand in the summer because they don't have a license, then taxing them.
This happens more than you'd think. I'll refrain from an anti-bureaucratic rant.
 
Apr 28, 2008
14,634
0
0
CoverYourHead said:
Oh that's just pathetic. As far as I know, most bloggers use whatever small revenue generated from the ads to pay to keep their website up, not to turn a profit. And then having to pay income tax as well is just silly.

It's like shutting down a kid's lemonade stand in the summer because they don't have a license, then taxing them.
Reminds me of that Boondocks episode...

Anyway, this is just stupid. As others have said, the ads are there just to keep the site running. They're not there to turn a profit. Asking them to pay so much for something so small is just stupid.
 

Worgen

Follower of the Glorious Sun Butt.
Legacy
Apr 1, 2009
14,415
3,393
118
Gender
Whatever, just wash your hands.
wow this is beyond moronic, seems like a good way around it is to just pull the ads tho and tell them to fuck off
 

RogueDarkJedi

New member
Dec 28, 2008
224
0
0
Serris said:
CoverYourHead said:
Oh that's just pathetic. As far as I know, most bloggers use whatever small revenue generated from the ads to pay to keep their website up, not to turn a profit. And then having to pay income tax as well is just silly.

It's like shutting down a kid's lemonade stand in the summer because they don't have a license, then taxing them.
that's actually exactly how it sounds =S

i don't really think philadelphia is going to get a lot of money out of this licensing thingy. i think bloggers in philadelphia will just go screw it, and stop blogging.

how do they check this anyways? do they have like, some employee that surfs the web all day looking for blogs from philadelphia? Oo
Tax filings. While the escapist doesn't say this, you can read more of the story here [http://citypaper.net/articles/2010/08/19/blogging-business-privilege-tax-philadelphia].
 

Treblaine

New member
Jul 25, 2008
8,682
0
0
Law is always lagging behind technology.

This flat-rate fee was clearly written into law with the idea that the only businesses that could possibly exist would have revenue and spending easily in thousands of dollars, and failed to consider how new technology would allow "businesses" that barely generate $100 and hardly cost anything to actually run.
 

Dr. wonderful

New member
Dec 31, 2009
3,260
0
0
Woah wait a hot second.

We have to get a permit to actually blog who Ads only pay 11-15 dollars.

Anyone, be thankful that you don't live here.
CoverYourHead said:
It's like shutting down a kid's lemonade stand in the summer because they don't have a license, then taxing them.
That actually happen here.
 

Cynical skeptic

New member
Apr 19, 2010
799
0
0
They tried to do something similar in North Carolina. They tried to tax affiliate marketing. Every company with an affiliate marketing program simply dropped everyone in North Carolina and everyone who made a living off affiliate marketing moved to another state.

Can't tax the internet, bro.
 

Imper1um

New member
May 21, 2008
390
0
0
Heh, okay, so everyone moves out of Philadelphia, or hosts the server on an external server outside of Philly, problem solved. Way to go, idiots.

Silly lawmakers, intelligence is not for you!
 

CitySquirrel

New member
Jun 1, 2010
539
0
0
I hope someone challenges this, although it may be all legal beagle as far as the written law goes. Also, I wonder what qualifies for a "blog"... do they mean any website that runs ads? A webcomic?
 

gl1koz3

New member
May 24, 2010
931
0
0
This is a terrible idea and a great example of how overblown has the government become... and not only the U.S.

Not enough money, oh government? Lose some fat.
 

Uber Waddles

New member
May 13, 2010
544
0
0
Poll taxes were made illegal because they restricted voters rights.

This is no different. It can be seen as a way to restrict freedom of speech. So it will be over-turned.

A blog is not a specific business, and even if it was it is located on the Internet, not Philidelphia. It will never hold up.
 

KaiRai

New member
Jun 2, 2008
2,145
0
0
Or you could just not pay and stop blogging?

I'm pretty sure this is extortion anyway.
 

jasoncyrus

New member
Sep 11, 2008
1,564
0
0
Technically it is completely illegal because since its a personal blog it can't count as a business. You arn't charging people to view it niether are you making an official wage from ad revenues, they are closer to donations rathr than payouts.

PLUS:

I doubt the blog servers are hosted in philidelphia so technically they can't demand you cough up because you arn't actually publishing anything in philidelphia...