Digital Goods

Digital goods are part of our daily lives. Congress must act to prevent digital goods from being subjected to multiple and discriminatory taxes.

We buy digital goods on our cellphones all the time—like apps, music and ringtones, movies, TV episodes, e-books and video games. Digital goods have become increasingly important to our daily lives, but at the state level they are all taxed differently depending on inconsistent tax code and varying product definitions.

A patchwork of tax code across the country could mean paying taxes two, three or even more times for the same product. This type of system is unacceptable as it unfairly and inequitably levies excessive or duplicative taxes, taking money directly out of our pockets.

Before you know it, you could be triple-taxed on a single digital product.

How A Digital Goods Tax Works

You buy a digital book online with your smartphone while you're waiting at the Chicago airport for your connecting flight…
The server of the company you "accessed" the digital book from is located in Seattle, Washington
The address of the credit card that you charged your purchase to is your home address located in Alexandria, Virginia

Policy

We need a fair tax system to ensure our digital goods purchases are not taxed more than once on each purchase.

What We Want

Congress must enact legislation that prevents digital goods purchases from being subjected to multiple and discriminatory taxes.