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1.  

   

   sachin, May 21st, 2008 @ 12:28am

   
   

   greed

   Taxing many times on the same commodity not only is happening here but also happens in India for many things. This is a innovation of greedy people.

    

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2.  

   

   doug, May 21st, 2008 @ 12:37am

   
   

   Watch out! The Mayor's city amusement tax is gonna get you. You can find it at the bottom of pretty much every bill, and it is, I believe, what makes buying and using World of Warcraft time cards over Amazon cheaper here than just setting up billing.

    

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3.  

   

   Nate, May 21st, 2008 @ 3:41am

   
   

   Nothing out of the ordinary...

   To have our money taxed twice is not out of the ordinary. Not saying this is right, infact, it is nice to see these sorts of situations get exposed. It helps people see how screwed they get in their taxes. If you think about your money, from start to finish, you probably loose about 50-60% to some sort of tax or gvmt fee. http://www.custompcmax.com

    

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4.  

   

   Lucretious, May 21st, 2008 @ 5:13am

   
   

   for years one was considered a scumbag if they stood outside a concert event and sold a couple of tickets for a few extra dollars. Companies like this can now pre-buy all the choicest seats, charge triple+ of the face value of the ticket and they're considered entrepreneurs.

    

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5.  

   

   Killer_Tofu (profile), May 21st, 2008 @ 5:25am

   
   

   Two Things

   Re #4
   Nobody here is saying that buying tickets Purposely to resell them is an entrepreneur. I would still call them parasites and I still dislike them. However, that is no reason to add a tax to them. Adding a tax after the right of first sale will have many unintended consequences. There is the right of first sale where they have a chance to collect tax from this, and that should be the only place we allow the government to tax.
   
   If the city wants a money grab, why not charge the oil companies. They have billions of dollars ... each .. every single quarter.

    

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6.  

   

   Brandon, May 21st, 2008 @ 5:41am

   
   

   Tax

   If I remember correctly, Chicago a couple years ago also tried to pass a tax or fee just to drive into it's downtown Loop area in hopes of collecting more money from business travelers/tourists and to get residents to use more mass transit.
   
   So what's next, tax on items sold at a garage sale? Why not? We have to pay tax on things bought at Goodwill, don't we?

    

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7.  

   

   Bryan, May 21st, 2008 @ 5:46am

   
   

   because that would be another tax on gas that the oil company's would simply slap on to our bill at the pump. We would still be paying and oil company's would still be making as much..or more.

    

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8.  

   

   Greg, May 21st, 2008 @ 6:23am

   
   

   excessive fees/taxes

   San Antonio already has a tax on yard/garage sale items, in the form of a required license (I think it's $10, maybe $15) to even hold such sales. I wonder if anyone enforces this, though. I'm glad I actually live just outside the city, so I don't have to cough up those taxes/fees.

    

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9.  

   

   Julie, May 21st, 2008 @ 6:29am

   
   

   The City is not double-collecting on tax. The first time a ticket is sold, they will collect tax on it. When it is resold, they will collect tax on the markup only.
   Read the article here

    

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10.  

    

    Chuck Norris' Enemy (deceased), May 21st, 2008 @ 6:30am

    
    

    Re:

    Went to a Radiohead concert in St. Louis last week. I bought my tix through eBay (risky...but they were good). I think I only paid $15 more than if I would have bought them directly through Ticketmaster including all the fees. I did look at the Stubhub tix and thought how outrageous the prices were, ie. equivalant seats approximately $285 (I paid $165). It makes sense though, a large portion of the seats (not lawn/general admission)were empty the entire concert. So Stubhub resellers buy them en masse from Ticketmaster...less people can afford to go to the concert with decent seats and they don't buy tickets...Radiohead sees a bunch of empty seats/don't get a full venue crowd/hurt band's ego. At least Radiohead gets the money for selling all the tickets and resellers are left, hopefully, losing money on that concert.

     

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11.  

    

    Crosbie Fitch (profile), May 21st, 2008 @ 6:31am

    
    

    Use an auction instead

    A better solution is not to sell tickets in the first place, but to hold an auction for all the seats/spaces, or better still to create an online market and let all comers (including the venue and event organisers) buy and sell as many times as they want.

     

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12.  

    

    Overcast, May 21st, 2008 @ 6:40am

    
    

    Or an even better answer is to just not buy them. Every time I'm even interested in a show - they are sold out to these scalpers and such - and the tickets are far too much.
    
    I haven't bought tickets to a game or a concert in probably 15 years - and most likely will not ever again. I like going - but they are just far too expensive now.
    
    So they can keep the tickets and I'll keep the money I would have paid in taxes.

     

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13.  

    

    Dolf, May 21st, 2008 @ 7:07am

    
    

    Amusement Tax?

    What a crock of BS. How does that saying go..? Oh right, 'no taxation without representation.' Something tells me the people of Chicago are not being represented in any way.

     

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14.  

    

    DKP, May 21st, 2008 @ 7:11am

    
    

    resale

    Some events are Requiring the pickup of the tikets at the door that night to eliminate the large number of sales online and the outragus prices

     

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15.  

    

    Anonymous Coward, May 21st, 2008 @ 7:15am

    
    

    Re:

    If you sell the ticket at a loss, does the city pay you the proportional difference?

     

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16.  

    

    sonofdot, May 21st, 2008 @ 7:19am

    
    

    Every city does this

    Every city in the US (and probably on the planet) goes to great lengths to tax each and every conceivable revenue stream, often to their own detriment.

     

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17.  

    

    eBuck, May 21st, 2008 @ 7:39am

    
    

    Re:

    15 years are you serious.... that is not living my friend.
    Regardless of price to not have bought tickets to something in 15 years is a bit extreme.

     

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18.  

    

    known coward, May 22nd, 2008 @ 12:10pm

    
    

    on the bright side . . .

    usually the tax authorities go after the little guy, at least this time it is a corporation that has the deep pockets to fight back.

     

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19.  

    

    Nasch, May 22nd, 2008 @ 3:37pm

    
    

    Re: Re:

    I'm sure there are plenty of people who live their entire lives without ever having enough discretionary money to buy tickets to a live event. And I'm just talking about the richest country in the world. Just a little perspective...

     

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20.  

    

    Notax, May 23rd, 2008 @ 9:45am

    
    

    Just tax consumption

    If you only tax consumption, guys who scalp would be discouraged from doing this... and we'd all pay less in taxes.

     

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