What irks me about this tax is that the City is setting up rules for who pays that are different from the rules that the State and IRS uses. If it is actually an income tax (it's not, but that is another story), why establish yet another way for a resident to measure their annual income? For example, gifts that would otherwise be considered non-taxable by the state or the IRS are considered "taxable" by the City. I assume this is all to determine whether someone falls above the income threshold that the City has established for payment of the tax, but why not just accept that person's 1040? No, we need to set up a whole 'nother review process.

I'm fairly new to paying taxes in Portland (as opposed to other counties/cities), so forgive my ignorance, but is this a weird situation, paying a tax entirely outside the normal tax day bundle? I feel like it is, but no one else seems to be commenting on it, so maybe I'm wrong.

Anyway, I think they're run into a lot less grumpiness if the tax was somehow bundled. Telling people to give you 35 bucks on a random Thursday is a pretty good way to get most folks grumbling.

Those are just advance notices, and I believe they were sent out without specific names and addresses (I don't have mine handy). That makes them a lot easier to trash, psychologically, than an actual tax bill with your name and address on it (which will soon follow).

@Todd - No, they had names and addresses on them. I received two yesterday. I immediately binned one of them, of course, which apparently alarmed poor Nathan.

Can someone explain to me how this is not a de facto head tax? And therefor unconstitutional?

I'm not paying this tax and will enlist counsel if need be. Also, this tax is dumb, regressive and not nearly enough.

http://bluebook.state.or.us/state/constitu…

Throw some art from a ship in the harbor, Graham. THAT'LL TEACH 'EM!

Mercury favorite Jack Bogdanski is already filing suit:

http://bojack.org/2013/03/the_tax_form_the…

@Graham no I can't, because it's a de facto head tax.

@Todd Portland Art Party? Sign me up! What shall we dress as?

Mimes.

Commenting here because comments are closed for some reason on the post about the former OSPIRG worker convicted of sex crimes:

Nathan, obviously without condoning anything Neel did and recognizing you work for a paper that encourages subjective reporter viewpoints: I think it's unprofessional to end of your post agreeing with Neel's self-assessment as a "fucktard."

You could have ended the post a sentence sooner and achieved everything you wanted to achieve. Now, when I finish reading your post, I'm thinking less about what Neel did, and more about you being needlessly self-righteous. I doubt I'm the only one. Beyond all questions of professionalism, it's just more powerful/effective to let the facts speak for themselves.

(And after all, who knows effectiveness better than an anonymous internet commenter?)

So I guess there are more Libertarians in Portland than one might assume, huh? Can't think of another reason why a fucking head tax would have passed in a supposedly liberal city.

I know the real answer is that 61% of the city aren't Libertarians who think it's a good idea for all citizens to pay the same amount of tax regardless of income. They just didn't actually bother to read or think about the tax they voted to approve. 61% of Portlanders saw the words "ARTS TAX" and couldn't vote yes fast enough. Fuck the fine details. That shit is hard to understand, right guys?

Nathan, can you tell us if we get the money refunded to us if this head tax is found unconstitutional?

"USUCKPORTLAND," OBVIOUSLY THERE COULDN'T BE ANY OTHER REASON TO OPPOSE THIS PARTICULAR TAX THAN BEING A "LIBERTARIAN." FUCKING AMERICANS AND THEIR FUCKING IDENTITY ISSUES.

Commenty Colin,

It's a fair point. Noted.

I threw it away because it didn't even occur to me that the letter I barely looked at was THE letter. I had no idea until this post that there wouldn't be a way to pay the tax when we do our taxes, I just assumed there would be a way to have it come out of the refund, or something. Yeah, it is definitely going to be harder for them to collect if this is how they are doing it. Just dug it out of the recycling and my husband says he is happy to pay it.

It could conceivably be a income tax because it has two 'brackets', zero and $35.00, based on income. But it is more likely to be ruled a head tax because people who pay zero are likely to be ruled as being in a virtual non-income class. Why they didn't bracket it based on income listed in ones state Income Tax return into ~ three brackets is crazy. They could have raised the exclusion and made up with it by increasing the amount the upper brackets pay. And had a legal tax. I give it ~78% chance of being thrown out.