How to fight the "Blogger's tax"

GO, BLOGGERS, GO.

An uproar on a so-called "blogger's tax" went a little viral earlier this week, when some bloggers got letters from the city asking for $300 to cover a business-privilege license.

The item became the subject of many other blogs, including libertarians and those on the far right who are using this as a way to promote the evils of big government.

We'd like to use the uproar, too, as a way to promote the idea of long-overdue reforms to the city's tax code, especially as it relates to business.

The fee in question is not a tax on bloggers; it's a fee for the privilege of doing business in the city, and it applies to all businesses no matter how much money they make. The problem is, if you make $100 from your blog, you're considered a business, and must have a license.

After that, it gets even worse.

The city will also impose a tax on any money your blog makes. That's because the city not only taxes profits, but also gross receipts. So it doesn't matter what you spend to make your blog viable. Whatever nickels and dimes you generate from advertising or other arrangements will also be taxed.

More than one proposal that could address this is rattling around. A 2009 mayoral task force recommended the city carry on its course to eliminate the gross-receipts portion of the business- privilege tax. But that won't happen for 15 years.

Meanwhile, Council members Maria Quinones- Sanchez and Bill Greene have their own proposal, which would actually increase the tax on business receipts but establish criteria that would exempt the first $100,000 of those receipts.

Both proposals deserve scrutiny. And we hope the latest howls from the blogging community will get people to focus attention on tax reform, especially since it's the first to fall off the table when serious fiscal problems hit. The city should have a regular mechanism for reviewing the tax code.

As the bloggers' outcry demonstrates, "business" is no longer limited to bricks and mortar enterprises; in fact, the idea of business is no longer always about making a sustainable living. Blogging in particular often combines commerce with free expression. Should such enterprises have their own tax category? Should we consider all revenue to be equal, whether it comes from a hard-goods manufacturer, service provider, or information technician? We encourage bloggers to keep this alive and get Council and Mayor Nutter to review these issues regularly. *