I don’t live in Philly. I’ve never made any money blogging. But if I did live in Philly, or if I was making money, I’d say…
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.
“The real kick in the pants is that I don’t even have a full-time job, so for the city to tell me to pony up $300 for a business privilege license, pay wage tax, business privilege tax, net profits tax on a handful of money is outrageous,” Bess says.
There’ll be some blogo-angst about the “chilling effect on free speech,” of course. And maybe about the notion of “keeping tabs on bloggers,” too. Mostly, though, this is just a counterproductive local policy that creates a disincentive for people to make a little money when they can.
Or, more likely, it’s a disincentive to tell the city about the money they earn.
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Don’t forget to deduct all the hardware and software you’ve purchased over the years in order to make that $50.00.