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It’s Fix the Tax Code Friday!
I am not among the many folks camped out for an iPhone this morning. As tempted as I am by one – and trust me, I am sorely tempted – I can’t bring myself to buy a product that ties me to AT&T. We suffered through a year of AT&T cellular service when the firm first started and I vowed never again. We have happily been T-mobile customers now for going on six years, I think.
(note to Apple: just think how many more you could sell if you hadn’t tethered yourself to a lousy provider!)
At any rate, I am a huge Apple fan – especially when it comes to iTunes. And when my last iPod went missing, my husband couldn’t take the moping anymore and bought me a lovely iTouch (basically, an iPhone without the phone – or a fancy wi-fi ready version of the iPod, depending on which way you look at it). I am completely obsessed.
One of the best features of both the iTouch and the iPhone is the ability to play music via iTunes. This is huge for me. You know how Ellen Degeneres seems to dance her way through her day? This is me. I have been known to sing out loud while listening to iTunes because I forget folks are around and can hear me. And I’m not embarrassed to say that I have some pretty cheesy stuff on my iTouch – at any given day, you can hear a range of music from Reba McEntire to Eminem to Nickelback to the Prague Philharmonic Orchestra.
I’ve spent a fairly substantial amount of money on iTunes, though to be fair, it’s probably less over the years than I would have spent on CDs. I don’t love every Barry Manilow song, I don’t need an entire Metallica album and I’m not sure that I could bring myself to walk up to a counter and actually purchase an Ashlee Simpson album. But I will buy a single from iTunes.
What’s fairly interesting about my purchases from Apple is while I have purchased a lot music, I have not pay sales tax on those purchases. So far, despite efforts to the contrary, digital music is not taxed by the vendor (yes, yes, yes, there is a separate use tax issue here, but that’s not part of this discussion). And while this feels like “old news”, the subject is making a comeback as online sales of other products come under attack.
All of this brings me to today’s Fix the Tax Code Friday question:
Should music and other new media downloaded from the internet be taxed?
Let me know what you think!
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