Heads up, bloggers. They could be coming for you (or me) next.
The city of Philadelphia is requiring some bloggers to buy a $300 business privilege license and pay taxes on any income. Currently they’re going after anyone who reports any income from a blog. Even if, as in a story in Philadelphia Citypaper, it’s only $11 over a two-year period. Now, of course, people will be more selective about reporting little odds and ends of income. But in such cat-and-mouse games, a determined cat usually wins sooner or later.
WordPress bloggers are probably safe for now because WP doesn’t allow ads, but there’s no telling how many personal blogs are out there running, say, Google AdSense ads — little ads that generate a few cents of income every time they are clicked on.
So there goes another little piece of our Internet freedom. Will kids’ lemonade stands be next?
That terrible! But, I guess, not altogether unexpected. Perhaps it’s even a good thing, in a way, since it exposes just how far the voracious “Beast” we’ve created will go to fill it’s bottomless stomach! There’s nothing like a little “And then they came for me” to show people why they need to defend everyone’s freedoms, even those with much more than they have, if they want their own freedoms to last.
Posted by IzaakMak | August 24, 2010, 11:55 am MSTAnd all those big guys with their attorneys, loopholes, and plush corner offices, need to remember they were once little guys.
Posted by PiedType | August 24, 2010, 12:31 pm MSTSo true! But I guess they get just as much bad advise from their cronies as everyone else, pushing them to focus only on how “picked on” their particular “minority” is. *sigh*
Posted by IzaakMak | August 24, 2010, 12:40 pm MSTIzaakMak – well said.
Posted by Joe R | August 24, 2010, 12:53 pm MSTVery interesting.
It’s only a matter of time before the government finds yet another way into our pocket.
Ridiculous.
And unfair.
But that’s the government, huh?
My favorite Boston joke: “It was so cold in Boston that I saw Deval Patrick walking through the Common with his hands in his own pockets.”
Talk about truth.
~m
Posted by michaelm | August 24, 2010, 8:25 pm MST