Maine’s Proposed Budget Will Tax Streaming Services and Pot

Maine's two-year budget will once again try to tax streaming services.

This new budget has some taxes involved, which you should know about. The Portland Press Herald broke down some taxes that could affect us Mainers. The one that jumped out to me is a 5.5% tax on streaming services. There's already a tax if you download something online, but not if you stream it.

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What does a tax on streaming services look like for Mainers?

I will say that when I hear state budgets my eyes glaze over. But the streaming services tax got my attention because I could feel that immediately. The Portland Press Herald's article about some of the taxes in the state budget included things like a pension income tax break but also had things that caught my attention like a streaming service sales tax of 5.5%. If you only have one streaming service of 20 dollars a month, it's not much of a bite only $1.10. But no one has just one streaming service and this could add up. This isn't the first time it's been proposed. It's the 4th time as all others have been rejected. But if passed, it would generate around 10 million dollars for Maine.

Taxes on marijuana in Maine would go up too?

The tax rate for cannabis would jump 40% from 10% to 14%. They expect to make some serious change from it. In the next couple of fiscal years, it could generate nearly 16 million dollars. Cigarettes would take another hit too. Maine's tax on smokes would jump from $2 a pack to $3 a pack generating the most in taxes around $80 million over the next couple of years. That's a big jump, but the last time the tax went up was 20 years ago. As they say, stay tuned...