Philadelphia Requires Bloggers to Pay $300 for "Business Privilege License"

To be paid in pennies (heh, heh)

Link to August 19 Philadelphia City Paper article, "Pay Up. Got a blog that makes no money? The city wants $300, thank you very much". (via Slashdot)

Excerpt: The city disagrees. Even though small-time bloggers aren't exactly raking in the dough, the city requires privilege licenses for any business engaged in any "activity for profit," says tax attorney Michael Mandale of Center City law firm Mandale Kaufmann. This applies "whether or not they earned a profit during the preceding year," he adds.

So even if your blog collects a handful of hits a day, as long as there's the potential for it to be lucrative — and, as Mandale points out, most hosting sites set aside space for bloggers to sell advertising — the city thinks you should cut it a check. According to Andrea Mannino of the Philadelphia Department of Revenue, in fact, simply choosing the option to make money from ads — regardless of how much or little money is actually generated — qualifies a blog as a business.