Monday, May 3, 2010

Should the Government Tax Media Downloads?

When you purchase a DVD or Blu-ray Disc that contains a season or two of your favorite television show, chances are that you also pay a state and or local sales tax. If you purchase and download the same material online in a digital format, however, chances sre thst you don't pay a sales tax. Some government taxing bodies seek to change that discrepancy. Two main reasons for the pressure to tax includes: state and local governments feeling the pinch of lost revenue to legally downloaded digital content. Some governments goes as far as funneling collected taxes directly to the multimedia industry as compensation for illegally downloaded content that occurs in a region.

Critics of the new taxes claim that the government should not tax the greenest form of media purchases. Digitally downloaded content eliminates, packaging, optical discs, trips to the store, and use of delivery vehicles. Critics also claim that goverments single out multimedia industry. For example, same content is sold online and is not taxed. Typically, govrnment taxing bodies tax goods, but not food and services.

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