Chicago on a Revenue Roll From Cloud and Netflix Taxes (1)

Chicago’s bold decision in 2016 to tax two features of the digital economy is reaping significant rewards, while the city’s more conventional tax programs languished during the pandemic.

Revenue from Chicago’s one-of-a-kind tax on cloud computing is about four times what it was five years ago, bringing in nearly $120 million last year, according to figures provided to Bloomberg Tax by the city’s Office of Budget and Management. The city’s tax on streaming entertainment has more than tripled over that period as consumers ramped up their subscriptions to services such as Netflix for video, PlayStation for gaming, and Spotify for ...