The Internet Is for Porn!

February 18, 2009 · by Althea Azeff

(This post originally appeared on www.salestaxbuzz.org -- all original content by Althea Azeff)

I’m going to tap my fingers upon the keyboard rather sensitively this morning. Porn is just one of those hot button issues that could be addressed in several different ways. I could, for example, take a post-modern feminist approach and remind readers that the preponderance of the pornography industry is staffed by adults who were sexually molested as children. And I would note that if we protected our children even half as much as we protect our capitalist money making machines (in this case, the multi, multi-billion dollar per year porn industry), there’d be no one left to star in centerfold spreads and DVD’s in say, 20 years.

Or I could take another, equally forceful post-modern feminist Free Speech and female power side of things, celebrating that women have somehow learned to capitalize on their objectification, many of whom now put themselves on the Internet without a male’s help, in front of a web camera, for money, and . . .

But no matter where there’s a tax issue, there’s controversy. And when porn is involved, it gets even hotter.

So let’s start by turning our attention once again to New York, where everyone’s favorite “john,” Mr. Spitzer, was replaced as Governor by Mr. Paterson (also an admitted adulterer, but evidently he didn’t have to pay for it), who is talking about adding a 4% sales tax on Internet downloads of music and software including, but not limited to, porn. Being touted the so-called iPod tax, my favorite headline on this issue so far has to be Adult Download Tax Proposal Awaits Climax In Albany.

Articles on the subject of porn are best read with a certain tune going through your head. A couple of years ago, one of my best friends and I scored awesome seats to the smashing Broadway hit Avenue Q (if you don’t believe that puppets can be X-rated, think again). Hands down, our favorite song from Act I, and the one that I’m convinced encouraged her to purchase the soundtrack, was “The Internet Is for Porn.” On tough days, we sing it to each other to make the other laugh, doing our best to mimic Trekkie Monster. Try reading this post to that tune.

Patterson’s plan is that only New York-based Internet porn providers would be liable for the collection and remittance of sales tax from New Yorkers, mind you, which makes me wonder whether Greenwich, CT or Hoboken, NJ will rise as potential new Internet Capitols of Porn, as New York Internet porn providers would be incentivized to move shop right across the border.

And here in Washington State, a broader, more expensive sales tax attack on porn is being proposed by state representative Mark Miloscia (Dem., Federal Way), harkening back to a failed attempt in California last year to tack on a 25% tax on the porn industry there. Going far beyond Internet skin flick downloads, this proposal aims to impose an 18.5% sales tax on all kinds of porn, from telephone and Internet services to ultra-adult magazines, videos, books, and other paraphernalia.

Sing with me, kids: “Why you think the net was born? Porn, porn, porn.” (Trekkie to Kate in Avenue Q)

Category: Tools, Tips and Suggestions | Tags: porn, Internet, Marketing, New York, Washington State, Taxes, iPod tax, Governor Patterson