Bloggers In Philly Need Business License

Philadelphia has sent letters to bloggers telling them they need a $300 business license to continue blogging. This is not for all bloggers, just those who showed some sort of income from their blogs. Most folks who reported income (from ads and such) reported only a fraction of the $300 amount the city wants from them.

Between her blog and infrequent contributions to ehow.com, over the last few years she says she’s made about $50. To [Marilyn] Bess, her website is a hobby. To the city of Philadelphia, it’s a potential moneymaker, and the city wants its cut.

In May, the city sent Bess a letter demanding that she pay $300, the price of a business privilege license. Washington Examiner

Looks like the city decided to get in on the action by looking at people who earned a few dollars from blogging and honestly reported it on their taxes. The city looked at the income and thought, “gee, we can scam these people out of money by forcing them to get a $300 license.” What a great way for the city to get more money without having to provide a service or actually do anything to get the money. Then again, that describes government to a tee.

All Philly is doing is ensuring it will get less money. Smart people will pull the ads from their websites and stop making money from their blogs. Then, they don’t need the license and the city will not get any revenue from taxes on reported ad income.

Look for this to come to other cities (particularly those run by Democrats) because government (particularly Democrats) loves to screw people out of their money.

For those who make a moderate amount of money blogging there might be a better way to screw Philly over in this. If these people pay for a license they will be considered a business. Then they can write off all kinds of business expenses like hosting fees and their home office space. There are calculations involved but since Philly said blogging was a business any time spent blogging would be used to calculate the percentage of time a study is used as part of the business. The bloggers could also deduct the depreciation of the equipment used for blogging.

If this is planned very carefully bloggers with a business license could write off lots and lots of money, certainly more than the $300 license fee. Then Philly would get less money than it anticipated and the reduction would be legal and made possible by the greed of the city.

It does not get any better than when you can screw the same government that tried to screw you.

Cave Canem!
Never surrender, never submit.
Big Dog

Gunline

[tip]If you enjoy what you read consider signing up to receive email notification of new posts. There are several options in the sidebar and I am sure you can find one that suits you. If you prefer, consider adding this site to your favorite feed reader. If you receive emails and wish to stop them follow the instructions included in the email.[/tip]