Is an iTunes tax coming to Oklahoma?
It’s been a big day for budgets today. First, President Obama released his budget proposal for fiscal year 2011 early this morning.
Then, moments after Oklahoma Gov. Brad Henry finished his State of State address at the Capitol, the Office of State Finance released Henry’s budget proposal for the upcoming fiscal year.
A quick glance at the budget summary shows several ideas to increase revenue, including agency consolidations, elimination of some tax credits and increases in permits, fees and licenses.
But this one caught my eye:
Capture Sales Tax on the Sale of Electronically Delivered Items
The Governor’s budget proposes the collection of sales tax be extended to include the sale of items delivered electronically that would otherwise be taxed if delivered physically. This would include items such as computer software transferred electronically, digital movies, digital songs, digital books, etc. The total increase in collections from this change is $3.46 million.
If the Legislature goes along with Henry’s proposal, then Oklahoma would join 18 other states that tax downloaded music, movies and books in some way. That could mean your Kindle downloads, iTunes music and movies and streaming movies from Netflix could be assessed a sales tax for the first time in the state. There’s no word yet on whether this proposal would also allow cities and counties to capture their share of the sales tax on those digital downloads.
For more information on these e-taxes, check out the following links:
Americans for Tax Reform’s Stop eTaxes site
Streamlined Sales Tax Governing Board (Issue paper on “digital equivalents“)
–Paul
Written by Paul Monies
Follow @pmonies
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Comments
[...] amid the recession. Lawmakers in Oklahoma are still crafting the state budget for FY 2011, but Gov. Brad Henry has recommended expanded tax collections, including those for online sales. (The Oklahoma Policy Institute has a good discussion of streamlined sales tax [...]
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It would totally suck! I’m against it! We are being taxed enough already!