The city of Chicago is being sued by Liberty Justice Center for their recent amusement tax, according to a report by Fox News.
The group says Chicago has no standing under current law to impose a tax on services like Netflix, Spotify and Amazon Prime.
From the story:
The suit claims the tax was slipped in using a creative interpretation of an old municipal code. Instead of passing a new tax, the city extended Chicago’s existing “amusement tax” to include paid subscriptions for streamed digital music, TV shows and games.
“No aldermen voted on this tax,” Jeffrey Schwab, an attorney with the Liberty Justice Center, told The Chicago Tribune. “It never went before the Chicago City Council, which makes the so-called ‘Netflix tax’ an illegal tax. If the city wants to tax Internet-based streaming media services, then it should put the measure through the political process, and let Chicagoans have their voices heard through the democratic process.”
This will be an interesting case to watch, if upheld it will likely encourage more municipalities to balance their overspending on the backs of cord cutters, if struck down at least it will force politicians to vote publicly and on record if they want to tax your services.
A full copy of the suit can be seen here.