Watch those holiday movies now: Chicago’s amusement tax rises $12.9M in 2025

In 2015 Chicago became the first city to add its 9% amusement tax when you streamed your favorite holiday shows or Christmas carols. It was one of the nation’s highest. But in 2025 it increases to 11% as the city tries to squeeze another $12.9 million from viewers.

Chicago’s amusement tax might leave you feeling as scorched as Aunt Bethany’s cat, but enjoy “Christmas Vacation” and other streaming entertainment now before you get burned even more in 2025.

Chicago’s 9% amusement tax is about to go up to 10.25% as part of Mayor Brandon Johnson’s $181.6 million in new taxes and fees to support his record $17.1 billion budget for 2025. The amusement tax boost is intended to raise $12.9 million.

The tax initially applied to movie theaters, concerts and sporting events – the kinds of things that draw large crowds and require public services. Chicago leaders next applied the tax to anyone who chose to stay home and stream holiday movies or music, all “amusements that are delivered electronically.”

Chicago was the first city in the nation to apply such a tax to streaming services, according to the National Taxpayers Union Foundation. The city’s amusement tax generated $258 million in revenue during 2023, up from $141 million in 2015 when streaming services were first included.

Chicago faces significant financial hurdles. It’s a shame city leaders cannot address the challenges without inventing new ways to tax the city’s already overtaxed population, including a regressive amusement tax that already hit low-income families harder and is about to cost them $12.9 million more.