The First Amendment Protects Freelancers, Too.

Charlottesville, Virginia, prides itself on welcoming its large community of writers, artists and other freelance creatives with open arms. But recently, for the first time, some members of this community have been told that they’ve been criminals for years. The city of Charlottesville and Albemarle County have decided to require a business license to write novels, and they have assessed thousands of dollars in back taxes against some of their hardworking freelance writers. Now, two of those writers are fighting back.

https://ij.org/case/charlottesville-writer-tax/

Corban Addison Klug and John Hart are bestselling novelists who live and work in Charlottesville and Albemarle County, respectively. Both love being a part of Charlottesville’s creative community and can’t imagine working anywhere else. That’s why they were shocked when they received bills for unpaid “business license taxes.” Both are former lawyers, yet neither imagined that they would need a license when they switched careers to become writers. But Corban and John soon discovered that not everybody has to pay this tax; the Commonwealth exempts many businesses that produce speech: newspapers, magazines, radio and television. Like these businesses, Corban and John also speak for a living, but the city and county have targeted them to the tune of thousands of dollars.

Making matters worse, the law is so vague that tax collectors can go after anyone they want. The result is money-hungry municipalities inventing increasingly creative ways to squeeze revenue out of their citizens. Municipalities across the country have similar requirements, and if Charlottesville succeeds at its latest gambit, many others might follow suit.

Charlottesville’s money-grab isn’t just wrong, it’s unconstitutional. That’s why Corban and John have teamed up with the Institute for Justice (IJ) to file a lawsuit asking for refunds of their business license taxes and challenging their constitutionality under the First and Fourteenth Amendments to the U.S. Constitution. This cutting-edge lawsuit will vindicate Americans’ right to speak for a living without being burdened by discriminatory taxes.
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