CARTOON TAX TO BE LIFTED IN CALIFORNIA.Byline: Andrea Adelson The New York New York, state, United States New York, Middle Atlantic state of the United States. It is bordered by Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the Atlantic Ocean (E), New Jersey and Pennsylvania (S), Lakes Erie and Ontario and the Canadian province of Times A San Francisco San Francisco (săn frănsĭs`kō), city (1990 pop. 723,959), coextensive with San Francisco co., W Calif., on the tip of a peninsula between the Pacific Ocean and San Francisco Bay, which are connected by the strait known as the Golden cartoonist who challenged an attempt by California to tax the sale of cartoons and comic strips
The appeal by Paul Mavrides Paul Mavrides (born 1962?) is an American artist, best known for his critique-laden comics, cartoons, paintings, graphics, performances and writings that encompass a disturbing yet humorous catalog of the social ills and shortcomings of human civilization. of a $1,000 tax bill at a hearing in Sacramento before the Board of Equalization In communications, techniques used to reduce distortion and compensate for signal loss (attenuation) over long distances. , the state tax agency, was closely watched by cartoonists, publishers and free-speech advocates, who mounted a public campaign against the tax through more than 30 letters of support. Cartoons and comic strips came under the eye of tax auditors in 1991 after the state's 7.25 percent sales tax sales tax, levy on the sale of goods or services, generally calculated as a percentage of the selling price, and sometimes called a purchase tax. It is usually collected in the form of an extra charge by the retailer, who remits the tax to the government. was extended to newspapers. The auditors maintained that cartoons sold to newspapers and other publishers as "camera ready" pieces of art were taxable as commercial items, as has long been the case with artwork produced by graphic artists and advertising agencies. Tax officials were reinterpreting a 1930s sales-tax law that exempted written manuscripts and cartoons produced by a now-obsolete technology. The officials decided that fully finished camera-ready cartoons produced by more modern methods could be taxed, but ruled that cartoons delivered electronically would remain exempt because they were intangible. The cartoonists argued that their artwork, no matter how it was delivered, qualified as ideas presented in written form and should be exempt from taxes. The board agreed with that argument on Wednesday and granted an appeal to Mavrides Thursday. "The system works!" Mavrides said of the 3-2 vote in his favor. "The board has begun to acknowledge cartoonists as authors and their works as literary manuscripts." Mavrides is the co-creator with Gilbert Shelton of the underground comic heroes the Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers The Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers are a trio of underground comic strip characters created by the U.S. artist Gilbert Shelton. Beginning in 1968, their adventures were collected in a series published by Rip Off Press. . After the board voted in favor of the appeal, they voted to revise the regulations and make cartoons and comic strips exempt from sales taxes. |
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