CITY HALL — The city's plan to expand taxes on cloud-based services, which sparked outrage seemingly as soon as it was proposed, will be delayed to next year, according to media reports.
Crain's Chicago Business reported Friday that the tax, which applies to companies that provide or use cloud-based services such as software and data processing, will be pushed off till Jan. 1, from Sept. 1, as City Hall tinkers with the proposal.
"We don't want to hurt this growing industry," senior mayoral adviser David Spielfogel told Crain's. "We decided to take more time to review the matter before implementing the crackdown."
In June, the city Finance Department ruled that existing tax laws for amusement and "personal property lease" could apply to so-called "cloud" technology. But the proposal was swiftly met with opposition from Chicago's tech leaders, who asked for clarity on exactly who would be impacted by the boosted tax, and by how much.
A mayoral spokeswoman declined to comment on the delayed implementation, and directed DNAinfo Chicago to the June ruling.
According to the Tribune, there is no delay for the collection of the Amusement Tax, which will affect consumers who use cloud-based streaming services such as Netflix and Spotify.
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