Sony agrees to Chicago city tax on PlayStation Store purchases
9% Amusement Tax will apply to various store purchases for city residents beginning November 14
PlayStation owners who happen to be residents of Chicago will soon be paying an additional tax on services such as PlayStation Vue, Music, Plus, and others as Sony complies with the city's 9% Amusement Tax.
GamesIndustry.biz sister-site USGamer reports that PlayStation users with billing addresses in the city of Chicago are seeing notifications that the 9% Amusement Tax will begin to apply to purchases from PlayStationPlus, Now, Vue, Music, Video On Demand, and Video Live Events starting November 14 of this year.
This tax was extended to apply to services like Sony's due to a 2015 clarification of an existing tax on recreational activities. The expanded definition applied the tax to streaming services such as Netflix and Spotify.
Some companies such as Apple have since been fighting the ruling, saying it violates the Internet Tax Freedom Act - a 1998 law prohibits states and local governments from collecting Internet-only taxes or discriminatory taxes on e-commerce.