New potential Internet Taxes...

[ohanafamily]

I get an E-zine about Windows XP, and this statement was made. I am not sure if this is the place to post it, but I am looking for opinions...

Another important legal event occurred with little fanfare on November 1st, when the federal moratorium on state taxes for Internet access expired. This opens up the possibility for states, and maybe even local governments, to rush to slap new taxes on your ISP service (including cable, satellite and DSL service), resulting in higher costs to end users. With nothing preventing it, these taxes could be assessed in whatever way the government wanted. Thus it's conceivable that the "x cents per email" tax that's long been feared by 'Net users could become a reality.

I was mortified!!!

 

[Uncleromulus]

If they even attempt that, there will be quite a backlash, I would suppose. I'd do my best to vote out of office immediately anyone who even THOUGHT about supporting that kind of thing.

PS-I get e-mail notification of replies to these posts. Wonder if they'd want to tax that too--

 

[doubletrouble_vb]

Interesting. But attempting to tax internet use is like trying to catch a greased pig. You could catch the cable users pretty easily but any service using dial-up would be a lot harder to identify and tax.

 

[katerkat]

Originally posted by doubletrouble_vb
You could catch the cable users pretty easily but any service using dial-up would be a lot harder to identify and tax.

But I need to cable connection in order to download music faster!

 

[Nephosaurus]

Hi everyone, I found this article that verifies what OhanaFamily posted. it is on Snopes.com which is an urban-legends website.

http://www.snopes.com/inboxer/pending/internet.asp

YUK!

 

[WDWHound]

Don't panic folks. This is not the first time the moratorium has expired and they are still debating whether or not to renew it. To quote the last line of the Snopes piece...

"As of 8 November, the Senate had still postponed voting on the bill after deadlocking on whether DSL services should be exempt from Internet access taxes, and how long the moritorium on Internet taxes should be extended if it is not made permanent. "

Nothing is definite yet, and even if a taxes are allowed on the internet, I doubt you will ever see a per piece e-mail tax. The mostly like scenerio is a tax of a few dollars a month on your internet service, just like you pay on your phone service now. I don't like it, but it wont be the end of the world either.

 

[GeorgeG]

Uncleromulus made a good point. When it comes to politicians and taxes, we always have the last word. We just need to make sure we go to the polls and make it heard.