Philadelphia Screwing Low Income Bloggers

[Jeffro]

This is pretty ridiculous but the city of Philadelphia is screwing bloggers who have made any income by forcing them to pay up for a privilege license, and other taxes, even if the blog made no money but was engaged in commercial activity such as displaying ads. Tax reform is the least this city needs. This is the kind of crap that encourages tax evasion. Someone trying to be honest and they get slapped around for their honesty.

http://citypaper.net/articles/2010/0...x-philadelphia

The biggest beef I have with this situation is that you could have made $10 in revenue but you'll be forking out a lot more cash than that to pay for that $10.00. No one should ever be taxed to the point where they pay more in taxes in they earn.

[PeoriaPundit]

Good God, people. If you are making $10 per month ... DO NOT REPORT IT AS INCOME. There is such a thing as being honest to a fault.

If you file a tax return and list it as income, are you not essentially TELLING the government you want to payt ALL your are legally responsible for .. including local business licenses. So don't piss and moan about it.

Every week, there's a newspaper article about some lemonade stand getting shut down for not having permits or what not. So it's not like you don't know this is exactly how the government behaves.

[chipbennett]

This is a First Amendment issue, and will be argued and defended as such.

[BrianK]

This is the dumbest thing I've seen in a long time. Surely the city will drop this.

[Ryan]

This is a First Amendment issue, and will be argued and defended as such.

Unless the government are total nut-cases, they'll presumably just change their policy immediately so no defending would be necessary.

Having said that, we have a similar issue here with student allowances. It's often not worth it for students to work a certain number of hours per week as the government simply cuts their allowance money accordance with their income. So it can get to the point where a tertiary student can be working for 10 hours per week with no problems, but if they work 20 hours per week, those extra 10 hours end up being for 50c/hour ... total stupidity. It's been like this for years though and nothing seems to be changing. You either do full-time study and 10 hours paid work, or full-time study and 40 hours paid work; anything in between ends up like slavery. Totally nonsensical and stupid.

[chipbennett]

Unless the government are total nut-cases, they'll presumably just change their policy immediately so no defending would be necessary.

It's Philadelphia. They're not likely to change until SCOTUS tells them they have to.

Aside from the obvious First Amendment issues, I wonder what jurisdiction the city has. I'm guessing the web host isn't based in Philly, so the blogger in question has no actual, physical business presence in the city.

Having said that, we have a similar issue here with student allowances. It's often not worth it for students to work a certain number of hours per week as the government simply cuts their allowance money accordance with their income. So it can get to the point where a tertiary student can be working for 10 hours per week with no problems, but if they work 20 hours per week, those extra 10 hours end up being for 50c/hour ... total stupidity. It's been like this for years though and nothing seems to be changing. You either do full-time study and 10 hours paid work, or full-time study and 40 hours paid work; anything in between ends up like slavery. Totally nonsensical and stupid.

Student allowance?

[Ryan]

I have no idea what SCOTUS or the first amendment is, but I'll take your word on that.

Student allowance?

Are you asking what a student allowance is? If so, it's the name for the money the government gives to students for living costs.

[chipbennett]

I have no idea what SCOTUS or the first amendment is, but I'll take your word on that.

SCOTUS is the Supreme Court of the United States. :)

The First Amendment protects freedom of speech, and of the press (among other things).

Are you asking what a student allowance is? If so, it's the name for the money the government gives to students for living costs.

Interesting; though, I think any commentary I might have would delve too much into the political - which Jeff wants to avoid in the Tavern. So: have another beer?

[andrea_r]

Excellent article on the issue:
http://outspokenmedia.com/blogging/blogger-tax

I'm with peoriapundit above: If you make $10 off your blog and you reported it as income... well, yeah.... income gets taxed.

Small business owner of many years here, well aware of the hoops you have to jump through. under a certain limit, it is just not worth it. Either get serious or go home.

[Ipstenu]

IIRC, you only have to report your Google Income (as an example) if you make over a certain amount per year (it's $300 or $600...). And remember, you're supposed to be doing this as a profit. So deduct the amount of money you spent on your site (i.e. hosting fees) and suddenly you've LOST money. Call it a hobby, you can still file it, but it's not a business and you can't be taxed.

Oddly enough, I do better (tax wise) filing as a small home business some years than others. Last year, I claimed my blogging and was able to deduct for it and came out a bit ahead of the game.

Still, that's all sorts of stupid, economy-wise, to charge small businesses for showing advertising. That's how you LOSE business, Philly. People will go elsewhere (or *cough* register the company out of state and have IT get paid the ad revenue).