Is Pennsylvania bringing back its tax on
"computer-related services"? Pennsylvania's
new "Netflix" tax (enacted as part of Act 84 of 2016)
covers more than just digital downloads and streaming services.
Effective August 1, 2016, Pennsylvania sales and use tax is imposed
not only on digital downloads and streaming services, but also on
satellite radio subscriptions and software maintenance and support
services. All of these items have been added to Pennsylvania's
definition of taxable tangible personal property.
Note that in the 1990s, Pennsylvania taxed software support and
"computer-related services" by including those items in
the statutory list of enumerated taxable services. The
legislature removed those items from the scope of taxable services
in 1997 after significant controversy over the scope of such
services.1 Now, 20 years later, Pennsylvania is
resuscitating its attempt to tax these items, but this time it is
attempting to accomplish the same result by
