A city in California considers applying a video tax for OTT TV services
The finance department in Pasadena, California, is exploring the possibility of applying its existing video tax, used for cable television, to over-the-top television services such as Netflix and Hulu. Similar taxes already exist in two other California cities – Indio and Benicia – as well as in Pennsylvania and Chicago. In reaction, Netflix declared that ‘it is a dangerous precedent to start taxing Internet apps and websites using laws intended for utilities like water and electricity’.
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