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The Blogger Tax: Just Another One Of The Brain Drain’s Nervous Tics

Over the weekend, a bunch of you forwarded us links to stories about the City of Philadelphia’s new efforts to force bloggers to fork out $300 for a business privilege license. The best piece on the matter, which ran in City Paper last Thursday, outlined some of the dividing lines between playing like grownups and just making a big stupid mess –dividing lines, by the way, that have dogged city officials for longer than we’ve been alive. The big problem with the City’s action is that it makes no distinction between someone who blogs as a hobby, for whom a BPL is unnecessary and ridiculous expense, and directly for-profit blogs, such as this one, who by every means should have one if they’re selling ads on the regular. (Full disclosure: We’ve been proud owners of a Philly BPL for years now.) But that distinction is very important: At this point, Philly’s brain drain is so drastic and wild that any news story that runs anywhere about how the City, in any official capacity, discourages creativity or free speech feels like a punch in the face. In the CP piece, Valerie Rubinsky explains how this BPL enforcement in particular may be a short-lived thing:

In June, City Council members Bill Green and Maria Quiñones-Sánchez unveiled a proposal to reform the city’s business privilege tax in an effort to make Philly a more attractive place for small businesses. If their bill passes, bloggers will still have to get a privilege license if their sites are designed to make money, but they would no longer have to pay taxes on their first $100,000 in profit. (If bloggers don’t want to fork over $300 for a lifetime license, Green suggests they take the city’s $50-a-year plan.)

But that is not a sure thing, and in any case, is a far-off prospect for someone sitting in their living room with a notice they got from the City because they had the nerve to blog some recipes or their thoughts about the new Arcade Fire album. Like so many other things in Philly, this could have all been worked out, if only someone was using their brain for anything other than that which encourages, well, drain.

This entry was posted on Monday, August 23rd, 2010 at 1:06 pm.

  • Make Me Dance

    This is the key point: “The big problem with the City’s action is that it makes no distinction between someone who blogs as a hobby, for whom a BPL is unnecessary and ridiculous expense, and directly for-profit blogs, such as this one, who by every means should have one if they’re selling ads on the regular.”

    And scaring off hobby bloggers that can enrich Philadelphia’s barren media landscape is beyond penny-wise, pound-foolish. It’s just foolish.

  • http://jtramsay.com J T. Ramsay

    Wouldn’t it probably cost more than $300 to move out of the city? The ghoulish spectre of “brain drain” rides again!

  • John Lightstone

    Mhhhhhhh, braaiiiiinnns.

  • schmoe

    Apropos, perhaps it’s time to update your “world is a vampire” meme? “Business men drink my blood. Just like the kids in art school said they would.”

  • kwinks

    OhMehGeerrrrrrd I can’t even explain how drained my brain is right now.. for real?
    Shouldn’t blogger or wordpress just monitor this, and give you a slap on the hand before it goes this far?
    What’s next… taxes for being on Etsy? Selling things at a flea market every week? Taxes for poor art students with their wears spread on blankets during first friday? Craigslist? Guess I should keep my mouth shut.

  • Nate

    Technically, you do owe at least sales taxes on most of those things you just listed, yes. Unlikely anyone will go after you for it, of course.

  • barryg

    I agree with everything in this editorial. However, there is a simple solution for “hobbyist” bloggers in this case: GET RID OF THE ADS. If you don’t have any income, you are not a business.

  • A Feculent Rainbow

    Does this line mean nothing: “If their bill passes, bloggers will still have to get a privilege license if their sites are designed to make money?”

    I kind of read that as saying, ‘if you have a hobby blog, then you don’t have to buy the bpl.’

  • kwinks

    yeah.. “if their bill passes.”
    just saying.. “Like so many other things in Philly, this could have all been worked out before”

    I’m all for paying my goshdurn taxes and I don’t have a blog that has ads or makes $.

    .. it’s just y’know maybe we wouldn’t have to pay so many taxes if they thought about things like this in the first place and didn’t have to use up entire work weeks/months going back and amending things.

  • A Feculent Rainbow

    Hey Kwinks, I’m not sure we read the same post. It looks like you missed the “will STILL have to” part – the part that indicates that the current law dictates that you “get a privilege license if their sites are designed to make money.”

    “if their bill passes,” then the change would entice small businesses – not just bloggers – to set up shop in philly because “[they] would no longer have to pay taxes on their first $100,000 in profit.” It’s not like they necessarily fucked things up… they are simply amending rules to in a time of need.

    It looks like a couple folks, unfortunately, were singled out and they can have their day in court (also, unfortunately). However,it is clear that city is not going to go after every blogger while making “no distinction between someone who blogs as a hobby, for whom a BPL is unnecessary and ridiculous expense, and directly for-profit blogs.” That’s just crazy.