creative versatility in Green Bay

On October 1, 2009, the state of Wisconsin revised their tax code regarding digital media. Digital media encompasses a wide variety of previously untaxed items: downloaded movies, downloaded audio, downloaded books, and even electronically transferred digital designs. These media files in the past were untaxed because there was no physical exchange of goods.

Just how this affects graphic designers (and ultimately their clientele), is outlined in section ‘X’ of the new Wisconsin tax code for digital media. While most of the digital media spelled out in the tax code are specifically targeted (movies, books, music) – graphic design gets lumped into ‘Additional Digital Goods,’ and falls into a category called ‘Finished Artwork.’ Finished artwork is defined as the final art usedfor actual reproduction by photomechanical or other processes or for display purposes, but does not include Web site or home page designs. The following items are specifically called out as final artwork, and will be what affects most graphic designers*: Drawings, Paintings, Designs, Photographs, Lettering, Paste-ups (okay… a bit confused on this one – does anyone do paste-ups anymore? And even if they did, they wouldn’t be digital!), Mechanicals, Assemblies, Charts and Graphs, and Illustrative Materials.

It goes a bit further, encompassing e-newsletter and information email designs (and text messages!?) In reading the tax code it seems to be geared primarily to tax for things which used to be tangible (CDs, Books, Newspapers, Movies) and have switched to digital version, and the graphic designer is an acceptable casualty in the effort to emerge from a $5.X billion deficit.

*There are certain exemptions in which the digital media would not be taxed which is dizzyingly illustrated in Section XII – 2: ‘Consumed in Manufacturing.’ You may need some wine to help get through this, or at least to alleviate the headache you will get from reading the example… may I recommend a 2005 Red Bicyclette? (yes, it’s cheap, but hey… we aren’t in this business to become gazillionaires… plus, we are talking about taxes!!)