Want To Start A Blog in Philadelphia? You’ll Need A $300 License For That!
It seems in the City of Brotherly Love, you need to fork over $300 merely for the privilege of opening a FREE account on any FREE blogger platform to share your thoughts or photos or expertise. And if you make the mistake of signing up for Google ads or something and thus "profiting," Philadelphia wants $300... even though most bloggers make about $10/year from Google ads.
So any mommy blogger who wants to upload cute pix of her toddler, or anyone who wants to share their adventures last summer, or anyone who wants to demonstrate how they fixed their cherished 1949 Ford 8N tractor... well, if you live in Philadelphia, be prepared to fork over a wad of cash for the privilege.
Look, if your blog is a business then of course you must pay taxes. But that's not what Philadelphia is requiring. It's requiring anyone "conducting commercial activity" [as in, signing up for Google ads] to buy a business privilege license that costs $300 for a lifetime, or $50 per year. Businesses must also pay taxes on any profit they make.
It leaves me sputtering, it really does.
A business "PRIVILEGE" license?! So, starting a business is now a privilege? What the... Who the... Have they COMPLETELY LOST THEIR EVER LOVING MINDS?!!!
ReplyDeleteYou know, what scares me the most, is that this is only the beginning. It's going to get much worse before it gets better.
Soon enough it will become the norm.
ReplyDeleteToo much of what cities, states and federal government does revolves around taxing the people. What we need are more restrictions on this ability to tax, charge fees and fines. In my humble opinion everyone should pay taxes but they should be open and clear to all and not hidden. Income taxes and sales taxes would be the logical choices. But to tax everything that moves is not just wrong but devious. Most of the fees your state and local governments charge are to make money. Necessary fees should only cover real and necessary costs all other fees shuld be banned. Ditto for property taxes (although some will disagree). The biggest roadblock for the middle class to be able to afford a decent home/property are the continuing and high property taxes. In most cities around this country unless you buy a mobile home in a trailer park you will pay on average $4000 a year in property taxes. So work hard and buy a home and the government smacks you down. They do this in addition to all the other taxes and fees you pay. Today while we struggle to make a living in every government there are meetings taking place to figure out what else they can tax, fine or charge fees for to get even more money. It's time to make your voices heard.
ReplyDeletePennsylvania Land of Taxes! Born there but moved to the free state of Arizona. Pennsylvania nice place to visit but you don't want to live there. May God bless Arizona.
ReplyDeleteHe has, FTG3, He has! And WELCOME to our beautiful state! --Fred in AZ
DeleteIf they can't outlaw the internet, they'll tax it to death.
ReplyDeleteNot entirely sure it's going to get better
ReplyDeleteApparently freedom of speech doesn't include blogging. Too bad our forefathers didn't see that one coming!
ReplyDeleteI'd tell them to come and get it, better bring a gun and friends with guns.
ReplyDelete"Sputtering"? Boy, it leaves me a lot more than THAT! I am so totally fed up with liberal-"progressive" bureaucracy! Please, don't tell me "the right does this, too." Those supposedly on the "right" who act like liberal-"progressives" ARE liberal-"progressives"! For the past many decades, I've watched as leaders in both of our two major parties have moved steadily to the left. Democrats are now FAR left-wing liberal loons, and Republican leaders behave like Democrats from 30-40 years ago. Many Republican officials have even gone to calling themselves "Progressive" Republicans. I call them "RINOs". Some are offended by that, but they truly ARE "Republicans In Name Only". --Fred in AZ
ReplyDeleteEasy everyone, you only have to pay the fee if you are earning ad money on your blog. If you have no ads (thus a hobby blog) then no fee is owed. The fee structure is $50 a year or $300 for a lifetime license. If your goal is to earn money from your blog then it is a business and you need the business license in Philadelphia.
ReplyDeleteThe article begins with the words, “The American Dream represents”. Obviously the author knows the answer to that question. However, I’d love to see him go to Philadelphia and ask folks at random, ‘What does the phrase ‘The American Dream’ refer to? Their responses, intelligible or otherwise, will prove that for them (and most city dwellers), ‘The American Dream’ is dead.
ReplyDeleteHistory is quite clear that something(s) will arise from the ashes of this once-great country. We are committing our precious time and resources to surviving the transition and hopefully molding it.
So long Philadelphia, it’s been good to know you.
Montana Guy
Easy answer--
ReplyDeletePennsylvania encourages everyone and their mother to sign up for some form of welfare. Get this-- you can get disability for your ADHD kid in Pennsylvania, even though s/he requires no special equipment, has a normal life expectancy, can be reasonably expected to achieve on average about 4% less than his/her "normal" peers (however you compute THAT), and does not require that you miss work (assuming that you are both medicating and doing therapy, med-check visits happen quarterly, and you are encouraged to schedule therapy sessions during evening hours anyway), and is too young to HAVE A JOB for him/her to be "unable to work" at.
Wouldn't believe it if I hadn't seen it. Would. Not. Believe. It.
SOMEBODY has to pay for all that welfare.
Hi Patrice...How are you? I hope all is well. I just started a health blog and still having problems uploading things. How do you get the bird on the nest to be on every page? and how do you get the wood on the sides of the page. I know how busy you get, but if you can give me hand with that, I would really appreciate it. Thank you very much.
ReplyDeleteAlicia (south Texas homesteader)
You need to choose a theme which allows you to use a photo. In the upper right-hand corner of your page, click “Design,” then down the left side of the page you’ll see options such as Posts, Stats, Comments, etc. Click on Theme.
DeleteBy scrolling down, you’ll see a wide variety of layouts you can choose from to customize your blog. I used the “Simple” theme, long since modified to my taste, but there are many others to choose from.
Once you choose a theme, you can start to customize it. (I believe some of these options are found in the upper left-hand corner.) One of the options to customize a page is “background,” which is where I found my wood background. You can also choose colors, fonts, link colors, etc.
It’s been a long, long time since I’ve set up my blog, so I don’t remember all the details on how I did it. I recommend you spend some time clicking random buttons to see what happens, and just exploring and tweaking and adjusting. Typing specific questions into a search engine – “How to do such-and-such in Blogger” – can be very helpful when learning how to set things up, since you’ll tap into the wonderful world of computer geeks who live for this stuff.
Happy blogging!
– Patrice
Thank you Patrice!
DeleteThat was very helpful. You've been part of my motivation to start blogging, so hopefully it'll be as half as successful as yours. Love, hugs and you and your family are always in my prayers. Take care..Alicia (south Texas homesteader)