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

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.

Guys, many of us have posted the answer relevant to this. You most likely are being correctly billed if you live in Florida. This is because Apple does have a law to remain in compliance with for subscribers who have a Florida billing address. That law requires for Apple to collect a tax that is only applicable to streaming services such as Apple Music and Apple TV+, but currently not for purchased content. This tax has two parts, and state rate, and for many localities the additional local rate, which for myself does total ~11%.

Again this is not a regular sales tax, this is a digital communication sales tax that for now only applies to streaming services like Apple Music and Apple TV+, but also to all streaming services and should be charged to all streaming customers in Florida by their respective providers.

Also I feel I do need to point out that companies who collect sale tax do not keep that. It has to be then resent to the government for which it was to be claimed on behalf of. In this case Florida. Apple itself is not keeping any additional funds on behalf of this.

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

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.

Guys, look carefully at your statement, if the tax line reads CST, this is a state law for streaming services, not Apple’s choice. I’m still not being charged for tax on iTunes purchases so far.

https://floridarevenue.com/taxes/taxesfees/Pages/cst.aspx

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.

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.

I understand we are all upset, but please read the posts that I and some others have uploaded with an explanation. I agree that Apple should have sent notice at least a month or two before charging this to our bill, but it is NOT Apple that is responsible for the charge, it is the State of Florida. Apple just didn't charge us for the communications tax which went into effect January of this year. until now. That actually held off on it as long as they could. A company can not bypass state tax laws.

Please review this site, look at both the state rate of 7.44% AS WELL as the combined local rate which is county / city specific. This combined CST rate for Duval is correctly around 11% for me based on the information from the state. This is not a regular sales tax, this is a digital communication sales tax that for now only applies to streaming services like Apple Music and Apple TV+

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.

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.

I was being charged 11.21 until I stopped it. However, before that I emailed Apple asking why am I all the sudden being charged taxes without being notified of the price change .They simply replied that it’s the law and it’s local and state tax . I explained that Florida is only 6%-7% when it comes charging taxes. Also that Florida doesn’t have a state tax. So why am I being charged $1.22 in

taxes? They just sent me a big article on their agreement. Is anyone else not from Florida getting charged taxes ? Or is it just us Florida people? Hopefully this all makes sense I’ve read it a bunch and tried my best to explain my end of this.

user_none wrote:

Apple is collecting the Communications Services Tax (CST) not Sales Tax.

Apple also collects sales tax.

I think most are confusing Sales Tax with the Communications Tax (CST). They are not the same thing. Apple is not charging Sales Tax, it's charging Communications Tax.