Return of the 'Blogger Tax'

by Doron Taussig

Published May 23, 2011, 9:37 a.m. ET

Brian Hickey over at Metro reports that City Council will today be considering a bill today to make sure that the city's blogger tax, which does not exist, continues to not exist.

Just kidding -- that's not fair. Though Philly has no blogger tax -- the city never targeted bloggers with a special tax, as some were led to believe last year -- it is true that Philly took heat for sending notices to bloggers asking them to buy business privilege licenses. Some of those bloggers were making very, very little money off their hobby.

Councilman Bill Green wants to change the rules that led to this embarrassing situation.

Green's bill would "exempt people engaged in hobbies or other not-for-profit activity" from paying after signing a sworn statement sent out with tax notifications.

[snip]

His bill calls for a "presumptive line" of making $3,000 or less for exemption, in part because "as a practical matter, it costs more to go after people [making less than $3,000 a year] than the taxes collected [from them]."

It is indeed a pretty obnoxious feature of the city's business privilege tax that you are expected to buy a $300 license even if you make less than $300.