RALEIGH, N.C. — The North Carolina state legislature is considering a bill that would impose a new 10% tax on adult DVDs, magazines and other visual material sold by physical retailers in the state.
Introduced last week by three state senators, SB 1007 would enact a “harmful materials tax” on “prurient” visual materials deemed harmful to minors, if offered for sale at any physical retail location in the state.
Such materials would include “pictures, drawings, video recordings, films or other visual or physical depictions or representations, including digital or computer-generated visual depictions or representations created, adapted, or modified by technological means, such as algorithms or artificial intelligence, but not material consisting entirely of written words.”
The 10% tax would apply to gross receipts from the sale of adult material. The bill does not differentiate between adult establishments and other retailers, so under the current draft, the tax would affect any business that sells adult videos, magazines, or other visual materials that fit the bill’s definition of “harmful to minors.”
That definition reads: “Any material or performance that depicts sexually explicit nudity or sexual activity and that, taken as a whole, has the following characteristics: a. The average adult person applying contemporary community standards would find that the material or performance has a predominant tendency to appeal to a prurient interest of minors in sex; and b. The average adult person applying contemporary community standards would find that the depiction of sexually explicit nudity or sexual activity in the material or performance is patently offensive to prevailing standards in the adult community concerning what is suitable for minors; and c. The material or performance lacks serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value for minors.”
North Carolina can be counted among the most anti-porn states in the nation. Last year, the state legislature overrode a gubernatorial veto to enact the Prevent Sexual Exploitation of Women and Minors Act. That law requires a performer age and consent verification process that significantly exceeds federal record-keeping requirements under Section 2257; mandates explicit written consent for each individual sexual act in which a performer engaged during the creation of the content, as well as separate consent for distribution of the content; and requires sites and platforms to remove adult content if anyone appearing in it withdraws their consent at any time, regardless of any legal contract they might have signed.
In other parts of the country, adult sites and stores have been facing a range of taxes and restrictions. Utah and Alabama have imposed excise taxes on adult sites, while legislators in Virginia and Pennsylvania are seeking to do the same. In January, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear an appeal by a group of adult businesses of a lower court’s decision allowing enforcement of a 2001 zoning law aimed at forcing adult retail stores out of most parts of New York City.
Most recently, in Tennessee, a bill requiring adult stores, theaters and other establishments in the state to post warning signs cautioning patrons that they “may be contributing” to sexual assault and human trafficking is likely soon to land on the governor’s desk for signature.
North Carolina's SB 1007 has been referred to the Senate Rules and Operations Committee.
