Live in Pennsylvania? You’re About to be Hit with a Netflix Tax

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Streamers in Pennsylvania are about to notice something funny about their next Netflix bill.

The state is now taxing digital entertainment, meaning services like Hulu and Netflix are going to cost consumers a little extra as a new bill adds an approximate 60 cents to a $10 subscription. Anyone with a billing address within the state of PA will see this tax attached.

The added tax, while small for individual consumers, is likely to amount to close to $50 million a year for the state.

This isn’t the first time a tax has been added to streaming services, as Chicago added a similar tax to streaming services in 2015.

Cable, phone and other private utility companies are subject to similar taxes, so it was probably only a matter of time before streaming services saw the same laws applied to them. Now it will be interesting to watch how fast this spreads. There’s no denying that there’s plenty of revenue for the taking here as Netflix and other services have expanded drastically over the past few years.

While streaming services will see this tax immediately applied, several other digital services have been listed as exempt, including digital newspaper subscriptions, any digital education materials, and the reselling of digital products, whatever that might mean.