For some time now cord cutters have become used to the idea that the price they see is the price they pay.
Now PlayStation Vue is going to change that by adding taxes on top of the price of many popular services such as the PlayStation Vue, PlayStation Now, PlayStation Music, and PlayStation Plus. This change will start in April 2017.
The following shows the email Sony sent to its subscribers.
Hello valued PlayStation customer,
We are writing to inform you that PlayStation®Store, including all services such as PlayStation Vue, PlayStation Plus, PlayStation Now, and PlayStation Music, will start collecting tax in your state starting April 1, 2017. The sales tax charged on each order is determined by your state, county and city tax rates.
For additional information please visit: https://support.us.playstation.com/articles/en_US/KC_Article/PlayStation-Store-Sales-Tax-Collection
Thank you,
PlayStation
Taxes on a streaming service are nothing new, but most streaming services include sales tax in the advertised price with the exception of several towns and states that charge specific streaming taxes. (That is not what is happening here.)
I live in Texas, and Texas has not added any new taxes on streaming services. What is happening here is Sony is just going to charge the taxes on top of the price of the service instead of keeping them as part of the advertised price.
Update: So far we can add Ohio and California to the list of states being charged tax.
So why is Sony making this move now? That is hard to say. It is likely Sony is looking for more money to take on newcomers YouTube TV and Hulu to the live TV services market. It is also likely looking for a way to take on Sling TV because it just rolled out a DVR and a new package of 4 add-ons for just $10, allowing it to offer more channels than PlayStation Vue.
Cord Cutters News has reached out to Sony to find out what states are all affected by this. Have you been affected? Please leave us a comment with your state.
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