State sales tax for Florida added to itunes apple music bill in October 2019.

I noticed the charge this morning for my Apple Music subscription. At first I thought Apple was being petty because I switched from store credit to paying by credit card via Apple Pay. I have the single plan and pay $9.99 a month; I was charged $11.07 which is a 10% tax. In Florida, it’s 7% tax. Upon calling Apple I was informed Apple charges state tax, local tax and telecommunications tax in Florida for all Apple purchases and subscriptions. I told the representative not for anything, but Apple could’ve informed their customers of this change rather than just trying to be sneaky about it. Also I didn’t realize Apple wanted to become a greedy company like AT&T, because that is the exact type of bs they pull with their billing. Disappointed in you Apple. Truly disappointed.

Ah, the articles that were pointed out (https://floridarevenue.com/taxes/taxesfees/Pages/cst.aspx and https://www.thetaxadviser.com/issues/2016/jun/digital-streaming-and-technology-platforms-sales-tax-treatment.html) are good resources. It is not cool that Apple did not mention this happening, but it is NOT Apple and their greed. It is government and their greed y'all! It is not sales tax as some have pointed out. Look at the invoice/receipt. Glad I found this thread because Apple Support person did not know how to explain what happened and why very well. "TAXATION IS THEFT" really applies but it is OUR government, not Apple. :-)

I was surprised today as well. I called Apple Support for iTunes, and was told that Florida and Kentucky have forced them to charge the Telecommunications Service Tax (actually it is called the Communications Service Tax), and that for Florida it is 13%.

My monthly billed total had been up to now: $14.99, today's charge was: $16.70

Doing a reverse tax that means I was charged $1.71 (10.24%). At least I'm not being charged the full 13%.

I called the Florida Department of Revenue, read the online documents, and they state the change effective January 1, 2019. Apple waited, at least.

I verified at the revenue website: https://floridarevenue.com/taxes/taxesfees/Pages/cst.aspx that the combined rates equals 7.44% as shown below.

To that, you need to add your local county's CST rates (yes, the local county tax for CST also must be added). You can find your local county's CST here: https://pointmatch.floridarevenue.com/General/CommunicationsServicesTaxRates.aspx

It seems my local CST should be higher, but was only charged 2.8% instead.

I hope this explanation and links, as well as those posted by others here explains what has happened.

In God's Harmony

I am having the issue. Also, Apple is charging the wrong tax. In my area, it is 7%, and they are charging 11%. I am on the phone with them now. The response at first is, "well, this is how the system calculates your tax in your area," my response: well, it's wrong, and you might be overcharging a lot more people than just me. They are elevating it now.

Apple is collecting the Communications Services Tax (CST) not Sales Tax. This is a different rate at both state and local levels. State rate is at https://floridarevenue.com/taxes/taxesfees/Pages/cst.aspx and you can look up your local rate at https://pointmatch.floridarevenue.com/General/CommunicationsServicesTaxRates.aspx

The rates are very high in Florida, with Sanford having the highest local rate of 7.6%. Don't forget the local rate is in addition to the state rate, so total CST in some areas the total rate can be upwards of 15%. Strangely it looks like the Florida CST line on my receipt was calculated using the 5.07% "State Tax" Rate and not the 7.44% "Florida CST" Rate.

Also, the CST information page has this very (not) nice bit of information, "Dealers may not absorb or relieve the customer of all or any part of the Florida communications services tax." Even if Apple wanted to eat the tax and keep the price the same, they can't.

Ugh. I am so annoyed that they didn't warn us. I just spent hours trying to figure out what this random $16.61 charge was for and finally figured it out after so much wasted time. It's extremely aggravating also that what they are charging you for is not listed with the charge. When I get a charge from Google it will always say the name of the app or whatever it's for right after the word google. But Apple is always "itunes" so I never know if it's a charge that I made, one of my family members or if I've been hacked and someone else is making charges on my account.

I just noticed the same sales tax. Is this just as Florida tax or will Apple Music start taxing all of its customers? It may not seem like a lot but once these taxes start, they will continue to inch up more and more. So frustrating. :-(

https://www.thetaxadviser.com/issues/2016/jun/digital-streaming-and-technology-platforms-sales-tax-treatment.html. :(

I guess we got lucky until now? I guess that makes sense. I don’t get the impression this is an attempt to nickel and dime, just finally getting up to speed on the 2019 law change. I blame the skeezy cable companies.

MCC1919 wrote:

Why did Apple charge state and local sales tax to my itunes apple music bill? Last month and previous billing did not have these charges.

Also, does this apply to Spotify music service? If not, then its time to switch to them. Pretty much the same music service. Nickel and dime us to death. Really???

Apple is required to follow local and state tax laws. If you have a problem with taxes, contact your elected representatives.

This is crazy I kept getting charged extra lucky my bank stopped it. I called Apple Music and nobody could answer why this happened. I canceled my subscription I’m done. The can have it I’ll rather listen to YouTube and it’s commercials.

Looking into this further, state sales tax is a tax on good and is not collected in addition to CST. CST is a sales tax for anything the state has defined as a communication service. it is an alternate sales tax based on the digital service instead of it being a physical good. Apple is not collecting both sales tax (goods) and CST because CST is the sales tax for streaming services. you can verify this on your receipt which only lists CST taxes and does not have the state sales tax additionally in the total.

Would have been nice to be given some form of warning or official announcement about it. I'm trying to find why my finances are off by a $1.62 and it wasn't until I noticed a higher than normal charge for Apple Music that it made sense.

"...but Florida has specified that only streaming video content is taxable, while other types of streaming digital content are not taxable."

Source:

https://www.thetaxadviser.com/issues/2016/jun/digital-streaming-and-technology-platforms-sales-tax-treatment.html#fnref_2

So why does Apple Music have CST applied?

Auscultate wrote:

"...but Florida has specified that only streaming video content is taxable, while other types of streaming digital content are not taxable."

Source:

https://www.thetaxadviser.com/issues/2016/jun/digital-streaming-and-technology-platforms-sales-tax-treatment.html#fnref_2

So why does Apple Music have CST applied?

Don't believe random websites.

The official Florida Department of Revenue web site for CST information (https://floridarevenue.com/taxes/taxesfees/Pages/cst.aspx) defines a communication service as, "voice, data, audio, video, or any other information or signals, transmitted by any medium". Further it says, "Sales of communications services in Florida are taxable, unless specifically exempt". The exemptions list does not include music streaming. Also, the third line in the summary at the top specifically calls out "Video and music streaming" as examples of communication services.

General Sales tax in FL is a combination of state and local (just like CST). The general state rate is 6%. Local rates can range from 0.5% to 2.5% but some counties don't add any local tax. You're living in an area with a very high (highest) local rate. 7% is very common state+local rate in FL.