If you live in Philadelphia and operate a blog, your city government wants to charge you $300 for the privilege.
For the past three years, Marilyn Bess has operated MS Philly Organic, a small, low-traffic blog that features occasional posts about green living, out of her Manayunk home. Between her blog and infrequent contributions to ehow.com, over the last few years she says she’s made about $50…
In May, the city sent Bess a letter demanding that she pay $300, the price of a business privilege license.
Orthodox. Faithful. Free.
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“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….
When Bess pressed her case to officials with the city’s now-closed tax amnesty program, she says, “I was told to hire an accountant.”
With city budgets in the bright red and career politicians scrambling to cover the bills they’ve run up, we can expect to see future shakedowns like this one. It’s starting in Philadelphia, but it won’t end there.