East Dundee residents to begin paying 5% tax on streaming services

EAST DUNDEE, IL - You can cut the cord, but not the taxes.

The East Dundee Village Board called it an "amusement tax" targeting people who gave up cable, but rely on streaming services like Netflix or Amazon Prime.

The village board approved a 5% tax on those services. Chicago and Evanston, both have similar taxes.

DOWNLOAD THE FOX 32 CHICAGO APP FOR BREAKING NEWS ALERTS

East Dundee officials said the concept is simple: taxes need to catch up with technology.

"Currently if you have cable, you pay a tax on that. But if you're savvy enough to cut the cord and use some other provider, you're not paying a tax on that. So in one sense, this is a modern version of the original telecommunications tax," said Village Administrator Erika Storlie.

The 5% tax per streaming service will take effect starting in July. It's expected to bring an extra $25,000 into East Dundee.