GLENDALE, Wis. — Netflix may have a new drama on its hands with Milwaukee's latest sales tax.
Some people who live outside of the city, but share the same zip code, say they are being incorrectly billed the new city tax by the streaming service.
On Thursday, Glendale Mayor Bryan Kennedy started getting messages from his constituents about new sales tax charges on their bills.
“They got charged the Milwaukee sales tax amount on their Netflix account and they live in Glendale,” Kennedy explained to TMJ4.
After a bit of inspection the mayor realized he was also getting charged a higher sales tax on his Netflix bill for a city he doesn't live in.
“I was surprised because I thought that things would be divided based on municipalities and learned later that it’s based upon zip code.”
The 53209 zip code is one of many that is shared between Milwaukee and other cities like Glendale.
“When I reached out to Netflix they said to change your zip code,” Kennedy shared. “And I said I can’t, it’s a shared billing zip code.”
This shared zip code confusion is a problem that's already extending past the bills to watch your favorite show.
A Brookfield electrician doing work in Glendale was also met with the wrong sales tax total.
"When the technician went to their system to plug in the credit card information, it automatically popped up with the 7.9% sales tax for Milwaukee," Kennedy said.
The new tax uncertainty also has led to questions about which total applies to businesses that are separated by city lines.
The Outpost Natural Foods on Capitol is one of the stores that is split by municipality. That means the parking lot is in Milwaukee, meanwhile, the store itself is technically in Glendale.
TMJ4’s Mariam Mackar went in that store to buy something and despite being in two different cities, the Milwaukee tax was added to the total.
Kennedy says there are a lot of parcels like that of Outpost Natural Foods that cross municipal boundaries.
Now, surrounding city mayors say there needs to be more clarity on where the city's sales tax actually applies so folks in shared zip codes aren't footing the bill.
The sales tax issue will likely be added to next week's intergovernmental meeting with the mayors of surrounding cities to start addressing the problem.
Until then, residents sharing a zip code with Milwaukee might want to check their Netflix bill.
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