White Papers
Applying Utility User Taxes to Video Streaming Services
As households move from cable to subscription video, ordinances written for a cable era may no longer reach the services those households actually buy.
This paper lays out the questions that determine whether an existing utility user tax already applies to streaming and what the now-final Santa Barbara decision does and does not settle for jurisdictions elsewhere.
Fill out the form to access the guide.
Inside, you'll find:
- The six ordinance provisions that decide the question, including the collection-liability language that is easy to miss
- What the Court of Appeal actually held in Disney Platform Distribution, Inc. v. City of Santa Barbara
- Where franchise fees and utility user taxes diverge, and why authority on one instrument does not govern the other
- State-law questions to resolve first, ranging from home-rule status and digital-goods preemption to lookback periods
- A formula for estimating the potential tax base, with the exemptions and service types that move the result
- Administrative steps for a defensible record, starting with legal review through ongoing compliance