A Fair Tax For Bloggers?

If you have the opportunity to maintain a blog on the internet and there is a potential to make some money (Go Adsense!), then I ask you, how much should you pay to your local government in fees and taxes for this privilege?

To me it seems a crazy notion. You heard about blogging and learned how to do it. Then you figured out some ways to make a little money from your blog or website. Long before the city was even aware, you were doing the work (hopefully with a measure of enjoyment) and then you reaped a small reward.

What has the local government contributed to this process? Even though you already pay for the electricity coming to your home or apartment, you have used a little bit of that electricity to run your computer. So I guess you better pay up!

Recently the city of Philadelphia introduced a Business Privilege License applicable to various kinds of private contractors; including bloggers and freelance writers. Each blogger that has the potential to earn money from their blog is expected to pay $50 per year, or $300 for a lifetime license, even if your annual earnings are $5. In addition to the license fee, there is also a tax based on earnings.

Those who are more accepting of taxation are probably not too concerned with this because for many the annual fee may not be too burdensome. I, on the other hand, am concerned with the idea that local government can just decide to take money from the people. Historically the idea of a Business Privilege License was reasonable because many of the services provided by a city were beneficial to the storefront business. But a blogger?

Here is one article about this issue, but if you google “philly blogger fees”, you will find plenty more.