That’s right, tax em? The city of Philadelphia has decided it will tax its bloggers $300 for a “lifetime business privilege. Why? Well, according to city officials, bloggers are making money from their advertising space and should pay taxes.

I beg to disagree at least as far as I am concerned. I have a blog and don’t make a dime from any ad sales. TN e e d l ess to say, the city’s bloggers are up in arms and rightfully so. According to a the writer of a BusinessWeek contributed article writer who’s name I won’t mention, , bloggers should be fined and more than $300. The author’s feeling is that this tax would help weed out the bad bloggers and promote the good ones.

To summarize his points, he feels that small business owners shouldn’t be wasting their time blogging. They should be spending their time meeting with customers and helping their employees do a better job.

I don’t disagree that customers and employees are important, but blogs represent a freedom of expression and can be used as viable sales tools. If you run a smoothie shop in Phili, why not tweet about the newest flavor and offer a limited time discount to try it? Then blog about what ingredients were used and the various health factors associated with drinking smoothies? If were a local I might just read it.  

Now would I want to pay taxes for blogging about my smoothies? Absolutely not! If I’m using a wonderful tool like Tumblr, I’m not reaping the rewards of advertising income. Only a tiny percentage of the world cares what I have to say on my blog so I couldn’t charge even if I had the opportunity to do so.

Now for those more popular sites that do have the benefit of advertising income, I suggest they pay taxes on that income like any small business would. There is no fine line. It’s plain and simple.

What do you think?