Remember The Rumor That The Post Office Wanted an E-mail Tax? Now the EU Really Does
I had to take another look at the calendar to make sure it isn’t April Fool’s Day.
The European Union thinks a tax on e-mails and instant messages would be a great idea, and unlike the US Postal Service rumor many years ago, this is not a spoof:
European Union lawmakers are investigating a proposed tax on emails and mobile phone text messages as a way to fund the 25-member bloc in the future.
A European Parliament working group is reviewing the idea, tabled by Alain Lamassoure, a prominent French MEP and member of the centre-right European People’s Party, the assembly’s largest group.
Lamassoure, a member of Jacques Chirac’s UMP party, is proposing to add a tax of around 1.5 cents on text or SMS messages and a 0.00001 cent levy on every email sent.
“This is peanuts, but given the billions of transactions every day, this could still raise an immense income,” he said.
Currently the EU budget is funded through a combination of import duties, value added tax revenues and direct contributions from member states — the so-called “Gross National Income resource”, which is calculated according to wealth.
However, following a year-long battle over the current seven-year budget, agreed last December, it was decided that the way in which the EU is funded should be changed, with new proposals expected by 2008/2009.
A single “EU tax” has found support among many of the 25 EU governments, MEP’s and the European Commission, the EU’s executive arm. Other ideas include a tax on airline tickets and an extra levy on oil companies.
The mind staggers at the complications involved in collecting the tax and/or charging it through to customers/end users, neither of which (of course) is addressed in the article.
If these people want to see themselves get left eating dust in the Information Age, they should go right ahead and tax themselves silly.
____________________________________
UPDATE: There’s an “interesting” mix of reax at the ZDnet post on the Reuters article.
UPDATE 2: In a totally related story, The BBC reports that “EU foreign ministers have said there is little immediate hope of re-launching the EU constitution, a year after French and Dutch voters rejected it.” The idea of taxing e-mails won’t help that constitution much.
____________________________________
Conservative Culture Open Trackbacks participant.
OMG these guys are on crack. While it sure would generate a hell of a lot of income, can you imagine the logistics controlling the tax…what about messages not sent correctly or returned due to invalid email addresses. How would the tax be collected….how would the counts be controlled….just what anyone needs….government control watching over us to calculate electronic messaging. Talk about BIG BROTHER.
And PLEASE PLEASE do NOT let CW Schmidt get ahold of this. She supported a large tax hike in OHIO that cost me hundreds of dollars over the past couple of years…..if she gets ahold of this we would be in trouble.
Comment by Jon — May 28, 2006 @ 12:14 pm
Jeez, you’re not going to let your lovely bride talk about what will be a 4-5 year-old tax increase in 2008, are you?
Seriously, I believe she’ll get more points for extending the tax cuts a couple of years than she’ll get demerits (deserved, but old news) for what she did in Columbus. Of course, they should have made the whole thing permanent, but that’s the fault of people with a lot more clout than her. And if it makes you feel better, the federal extension probably saved you more money than the state increases cost you. :–>
Comment by TBlumer — May 28, 2006 @ 12:29 pm
#1, if they’re “smart” (as in devious) they’ll base it on messages sent, exempt the first couple of thousand messages a month. Then the average person will know they’re off the hook. Then they can package it as a way to go after the big, evil corporations and the criminal spammers.
As to the logistics, especially for people who spoof, mask IPs, etc. — Whoa.
Floating the idea as affecting everybody and then pulling back to what I described may be part of the PR strategy to “sell” the tax to the average person.
Comment by TBlumer — May 28, 2006 @ 12:47 pm
If it moves - tax it! If it is something done- tax it!
Typical. If that goes the Dems will certainly push for the extra revenue for the coffers. Bill it under “email tax to help the troops… save education… and save the whales.
Perhaps a per volume tax… hit the spammers only. Ha ha.
Comment by Conservative Culture — May 28, 2006 @ 5:20 pm
#4, I was thinking about the same Reagan quote when I read this.
An e-mail tax for the children…. Blech.
Comment by TBlumer — May 28, 2006 @ 5:28 pm
#2…no she will move on to what I am sure will be other issues that arise in the 2nd district. The tax increase issue will plague everyone in OH for the longest time until we can get a legislature and a governor who will act with the common everyday folks in mind, not their own political agendas.
Given I had to pay around $3200 for BOTH federal and state taxes, I seriously doubt the freaking extension helped me at all. I seem to be in the bracket where NOTHING the Republicans do helps my taxes. Ticks me off to no end.
Comment by Jon — May 29, 2006 @ 8:12 am
[URL]http://www.amore.scalatore.org[/URL] [URL]http://www.bianchi.pignait.org[/URL] [URL]http://www.porno.pignait.org[/URL] [URL]http://www.puglia.scalatore.org[/URL] [URL]http://www.sandro.rizzarsi.org[/URL] [URL]http://www.cucina.scalatore.org[/URL] [URL]http://www.rossi.rizzarsi.org[/URL] [URL]http://www.sabrina-ferilli.scalatore.org[/URL] [URL]http://www.bambini.scalatore.org[/URL] [URL]http://www.sicilia.rizzarsi.org[/URL] [URL]http://www.pisa.pignait.org[/URL] [URL]http://www.loghi.rizzarsi.org[/URL] [URL]http://www.roma.pignait.org[/URL] [URL]http://www.figa.pignait.org[/URL] [URL]http://www.totti.scalatore.org[/URL] [URL]http://www.calabria.rizzarsi.org[/URL] [URL]http://www.culo.pignait.org[/URL] [URL]http://www.inter.rizzarsi.org[/URL]
Comment by Hulita — October 17, 2006 @ 11:12 pm