Should sales tax be charged on newspapers?
I read a lot of newspapers; sometimes seven in one day. And I've noticed that some places in the Grove charge sales tax and others don't. Of course I've started going to the places that don't charge the sales tax.
Didn't they drop the sales tax on publications years ago in Dade County?
Didn't they drop the sales tax on publications years ago in Dade County?
posted by Tom Falco at 1:29 PM
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5 Comments:
The physical papers themselves are taxable, although any given merchant may be ignorant of the law or choose to absorb the tax. On the other hand, advertising revenue (to the publication) is not. There was a brief period some years back when the Florida legislature decided to tax advertising (along with some other "services") whereupon the big newspaper owners (remember Knight Ridder?) freaked out and generated enough negative editorials that the legislative poobahs soon caved and rescinded the tax.
Why would you bother purchasing dead-tree publications when it's all online, and for free?
Cause I feel like it.
What is better than sitting on your favorite chair, sipping your morning coffee and reading the paper - not necessarily the Herald - but why do we have to be glued to our computers. If you buy them at the newsracks there is no tax. Newspapers like magazines are taxed when you buy them in the drug store or market.
In fact, newsrack sales are subject to sales tax even though the consumer doesn't see it. The publications themselves will remit as tax, say, 3 cents (or so) of a 35 cent sale. Two things are at work here. One is that it is much more convenient to have the rack accept 35 cents than 37 cents. The second (and more important) point is that newspapers typically get only 15-20% of their revenues from subscriptions and rack sales, the rest from ads. At the rate that hard copy readership has plummeted in recent years, the papers would rather eat the tax than hassle the shrinking customer base for a few pennies. The reader is far more valuable in establishing ad rates than any revenue realized from actual issue sales.
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