Florida hits satellite viewing with higher tax
April 18, 2017
By Chris Forrester
Florida residents must pay a higher tax if viewing programming from satellite rather than cable TV.
The Florida Supreme Court made the ruling on April 13th and overturned an earlier court decision that tax rates for satellite or cable viewing should be the same.
Both DirecTV and Dish Network had initially sued the state (back in 2005) over what they saw as “discriminatory pricing”. Cable TV in Florida is taxed at 4.92 per cent, while satellite delivery is viewed at 9.07 per cent.
In June 2015 a Florida appeals court had sided with the satellite broadcasters although in a very close decision. The Supreme Court has now reversed that earlier decision.