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Author Topic: AMC Joins The Subscription Service Wars Steve Kraus Film God Posts: 4094 From: Chicago, IL, USA Registered: May 2000 posted 08-03-2018 11:22 PM                    AMC Stubs A-List does not cost $19.95 as discussed. It's actually $21.05 per month because they tack on a $1.10 tax charge. What tax is that? Who would they be remitting to? Or is this a scam?  |  IP: Logged Martin Brooks Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 900 From: Forest Hills, NY, USA Registered: May 2002 posted 08-07-2018 01:01 AM                        It's not a scam, it's local sales tax. In your case, it looks like it's 5.5%. AMC doesn't charge it (as the old saying goes), they just collect it. If you're upset about it, go see 2 more movies a year and it will more than make up for it.  |  IP: Logged Frank Angel Film God Posts: 5305 From: Brooklyn NY USA Registered: Dec 1999 posted 08-07-2018 09:54 PM                        We saw the advantage of a subscription service way back in 1995 when we offered our Movies, Movies, Movies, Club Discounts. Patrons bought voucher books of 10 vouchers at $2 off full ticket price. To make it work, we realized it couldn't been seen as something restrictive, so we made it so the buyer could use those 10 vouchers any way they liked -- see ten films any time they wanted or take 10 people to 1 film or any variation of their choice. The voucher was presented at the boxoffice and it redeemed a ticket at the Club price. The vouchers were good for a year. The voucher book also contained coupons for 2 free medium popcorns and 2 medium free sodas. The incentive for the patron was the obvious $$ discount with few restrictions; for us, it fulfilled our mission to encourage more people to see great films. What we discovered was, as much as our mission was to present the best critically acclaimed, many times off-beat gems...a mix of foreign, independent and under-marketed and overlooked but exceptional titles by the multiplexes, it turned out that for every voucher a patron didn't use to buy a ticket, at the end of the year, we had that money and the studio didn't. When a voucher was used to redeem a ticket, the studio got their 35% to 55%; when a voucher expired unused, we got to keep the full ticket price. As much as it was antithesis to our mission to get more people to see good cinema, you couldn't help wishing more of them wouldn't use all their vouchers!  |  IP: Logged Mike Blakesley Film God Posts: 12767 From: Forsyth, Montana Registered: Jun 99 posted 08-07-2018 10:42 PM                        That's why it's a great idea to do a gift card program. I'm not going to say how much $$ we have floating around in the "giftcardverse," but let's just say it's a surprising amount of money. A lot of $25 or $50 or even a couple $100 cards are sitting in desk drawers or on top of dressers, unused.  |  IP: Logged Frank Cox Film God Posts: 2234 From: Melville Saskatchewan Canada Registered: Apr 2011 posted 08-08-2018 12:29 AM                        Several years ago, the government here made it illegal for gift cards and similar things that are paid for to expire. So if someone purchases a $10 gift certificate that certificate can't have any expiry date. If you give someone a $10 gift certificate free of charge, that can expire. But not one that's paid for.  |  IP: Logged Steve Kraus Film God Posts: 4094 From: Chicago, IL, USA Registered: May 2000 posted 08-08-2018 09:32 AM                    Sales tax in Chicago is not 5.5% and we don't have a tax on services. Taxes on movie admissions would vary town to town. Also, I don't live in Chicago. Martin, please do me a favor and look at AMC's site as though you were going to subscribe. I would like to know if the so-called tax is the same in there as here.  |  IP: Logged Martin McCaffery Film God Posts: 2481 From: Montgomery, AL Registered: Jun 99 posted 08-08-2018 10:55 AM                        Different Martin, but the AMC site does say "Join AMC Stubs A-List & see up to 3 movies every week for $19.95/mo (+tax). Learn More" I didn't try to sign up, but if it is like other online sites that charge tax, they only charge the State tax, not the City and County taxes, which may be why your tax seems odd. Or they could have just screwed up.  |  IP: Logged Steve Kraus Film God Posts: 4094 From: Chicago, IL, USA Registered: May 2000 posted 08-08-2018 11:22 AM                    You might be on to something as I just filled it out as though I lived in DE where there is no state sales tax and indeed it was zero. But pretty sure our Illinois sales tax does not apply.  |  IP: Logged Frank Cox Film God Posts: 2234 From: Melville Saskatchewan Canada Registered: Apr 2011 posted 08-08-2018 12:18 PM                        Maybe it's just set up with your area in the wrong category. There are so many sales tax jurisdictions in the US that I can see where it would be almost impossible to get it 100% right 100% of the time, especially when you're just the guy in the central office somewhere who relies on notifications from the local managers when and if something changes in that regard.  |  IP: Logged Mike Blakesley Film God Posts: 12767 From: Forsyth, Montana Registered: Jun 99 posted 08-08-2018 12:30 PM                        quote: Frank Cox Several years ago, the government here made it illegal for gift cards and similar things that are paid for to expire. So if someone purchases a $10 gift certificate that certificate can't have any expiry date. Right... there's a similar law in the U.S. (I'm not sure if it's state or federal.) Anyway, ours never expire. The computer keeps track of them. I've had people come in with cards all beat up, saying "We found this behind the dresser when we moved...is it still good?" As long as we can read the number on the back of the card, no problem.  |  IP: Logged Adam Martin I'm not even gonna point out the irony. Posts: 3686 From: Dallas, TX Registered: Nov 2000 posted 08-08-2018 01:05 PM                     Taxes are insane. I've had to set up POS tax tables where every item was taxed differently. What percentage of the item is wheat or corn product? Is the item served hot? Is the item carbonated? I remember Iowa being particularly complicated. All the larger chains will have one or more persons who handle nothing but taxes, and often will also employ a consulting firm or tax-specific lawyers to advise how to deal with the craziness over all of the jurisdictions.  |  IP: Logged Harold Hallikainen Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 906 From: Denver, CO, USA Registered: Aug 2009 posted 08-08-2018 05:08 PM                        On never expiring gift cards, are they shown as a liability on the books until they are used? ie Gift Card Sale Cash in Bank $10 Gift Card Liab $10 Gift Card Use Gift Card Liab $10 Ticket Sale Income $10 On sales tax, they ARE complicated! There are different rates on different products, then there are local rates (city and county), then state rates. It's a lot to keep track of! I had thought that there was sales tax on "tangible personal property." Admission to a movie does not seem to fit that category. I guess the ticket is "tangible." And with the recent supreme court ruling, collection of sales tax on interstate sales is now required. FUN! Harold  |  IP: Logged Mike Blakesley Film God Posts: 12767 From: Forsyth, Montana Registered: Jun 99 posted 08-08-2018 05:39 PM                        Well I don't know how anybody else does it, but here, we're taxed on the income when we get it, but that's where it ends. To be honest I've never checked with my accountant on this, but any "redeemed" gift cards are just subtracted from our expected "cash" at the end of each day, so it all balances out. We don't have sales tax here so we don't need to worry about that angle.  |  IP: Logged Marcel Birgelen Film God Posts: 3357 From: Maastricht, Limburg, Netherlands Registered: Feb 2012 posted 08-08-2018 06:28 PM                     It obviously depends on your local jurisdiction, but general accounting rules regarding gift cards that represent a monetary value imply, that you don't have to pay sales tax or VAT on it, until those get redeemed. Technically, it's not even a sale, there is no revenue (yet), unless you charge a "service fee", in that case the service fee is revenue and subject to normal taxation. A gift card or voucher is merely a promise to deliver goods and/or services in the future. Also, technically, any gift card should end up on your ledger as "Short-term debt", because the debt can be potentially claimed at any time, even though some of those gift cards/vouchers might never be redeemed. Regarding expiry dates on vouchers, there seem to be lots of differences between jurisdictions and often the legal status is pretty much in limbo. I think, there should be a possibility to expire gift cards/vouchers after a reasonable amount of time, like 5 years, even if it's just to keep the short term debt on your balance from accumulating. quote: Mike Blakesley Well I don't know how anybody else does it, but here, we're taxed on the income when we get it, but that's where it ends. In most acceptable accounting schemes, you're taxed as soon as you write the invoice or receipt, even though you might not have seen any money yet. Luckily, in "consumer retail" this usually matches up with when he/she gets the goods or services. This might obviously not be true for most electronic payments.  |  IP: Logged Steve Kraus Film God Posts: 4094 From: Chicago, IL, USA Registered: May 2000 posted 08-11-2018 04:02 PM                    I had tweeted my question to AMC which they ignored so I wrote them off the web page. An automatic response said I'd hear back in a day or so. A week went by with nothing so I replied to the automatic response and they wrote and said "This concern our department is unable to handle." I have replied please refer me to the person who can answer my question. I also have an inquiry out to the Illinois Department of Revenue asking if there is a state sales tax (or ANY state tax) on movie tickets.  |  IP: Logged

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