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EU May Tax SMS, E-Mail Messages

By BetaNews Staff, BetaNews

May 26, 2006, 6:36 PM

The European Union is considering a tax on text and e-mail messages, as the 25-country bloc looks for new ways to fund itself. The idea is among several others being floated in committee as the parliament argues over a new budget. According to the propsal, a 1.5-cent tax on SMS messages, and a 0.00001-cent tax would be levied on each e-mail sent. It is not clear if users themselves or the companies providing the service would be responsible for the tax.

The proposal was brought to the table by French center-right lawmaker Alain Lamassoure. He called the tax "peanuts," saying it could provide an "immense income" for the EU. In parts of Europe, the concept of a tax on text messaging has been already considered. Italy briefly toyed with the idea, but it was soundly rejected. A European Union working group is currently looking over the proposed legislation.

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Score: 0

By mandery

edited May 31, 2006 - 9:47 AM

Bare in mind that this is only a proposal. It is not a Bill that has been accepted yet.
Everyday the European Parlament has to consider a bunch of propositions. That however doesn't mean that everyone of them gets ratified.
To accomplish a thing like this, every Member State has to accept, as taxes are regulated separately by every member state.
In short term: This is one of the quirks of Democracy...

Score: 0

By tbresson

edited May 31, 2006 - 5:43 AM

Oh I almost forgot. Think about the poor old Granny who connects to the internet to get mail from her son or daughter who doesn't protect her computer from spy/ad/malware and virus - she would probably get part of a bot-network soon enough and might even get to be the proud owner of her own little smtp server that sends out 10000 spam mails a minute.

She of course will have to pay the goverment all of her pension to cover the taxes.

And another thing.. Freedom of speech will now have to be redefined. Freedom of speech for those who can afford it - or something.

Score: 0

By tbresson

posted May 31, 2006 - 5:38 AM

I think someone should consider adding taxes to the words that come out of politians.

Score: 0

By horsecharles

edited May 30, 2006 - 2:01 PM

Socialism & Big Brother both rear their collective ugly heads....

Score: 0

By vinodis

posted May 30, 2006 - 5:55 AM

The Best place to live in without taxes are Arab Countries!

Score: 0

By horsecharles

posted May 30, 2006 - 1:58 PM

Yeah, & w/o interest rates...turn the masses into beggars...

Score: 0

By Mark Gillespie

posted May 30, 2006 - 5:31 AM

If it stops the spaming c***suckers from spamming the internet to a grinding halt, then I am up for it. I send 10 emails a week or so.

If it means the internet will be faster (as the 40% of internet traffic that was spam is no more), then it's a good thing.

Even better, would be to keep it free, and shoot the 100 or so American companies that send 90% of the spam...

Score: 0

By Natrunner

edited Jun 1, 2006 - 2:31 AM

Or shoot the 100 or so idiots that spew anti-American bulls*** like blaming American companies for 90% of spam....

Score: 0

By zridling

posted May 29, 2006 - 6:21 PM

Guess we could all open up our own forums for people to leave us messages instead of email. Republican politicians in the US have spent more than a decade finding ways to tax the internet in various ways, and the republicans state governors are already doing it. Pretty sad that the whole idea of politicians can't be voted off the planet.

Score: 0

By sebastiannielsen

edited May 29, 2006 - 9:39 AM

I dont think its technically possible. Even if the receiving SMTP servers was setup to require an tax code (a code from a central tax computer telling the SMTP server that the tax has been paid) to accept email, other would setup tax-free SMTPs. And many people would open a internal web messaging system, that allows the user to send messages to other users on the same site, and then it wouldnt be covered by tax.

But on SMS it would be fully possible because we already pay an operator fee for using SMS. A part of this fee can be the tax.

Score: 0

By Silentmaster101

posted May 30, 2006 - 3:26 PM

and since i can set up my own mail server and have it route through my own proxy, no i dont think they can do that.

Score: 0

By pafinator11

posted May 31, 2006 - 4:49 PM

they may be able to tax the internet backbones.

Score: 0

By Esquire

posted May 28, 2006 - 9:21 PM

E-postage stamps?

Score: 0

By BackspaceSpecialist

edited May 28, 2006 - 4:21 PM

And will this stop all that spam that's floating about?

Score: 0

By crashoverride

posted May 28, 2006 - 2:00 PM

Things like this are going to be the death of free email services.

Score: 0

By Natrunner

posted May 28, 2006 - 2:56 AM

I live in the U.K. and there is a tax(license) required to have a television in your home. The problem with these type of taxes is that they work when the economy is good but bites the government in the @ss when the ecomony is in recession.

Score: 0

By mancub

edited May 28, 2006 - 7:01 PM

i agree we pay over 6 to 7 mouths of our wages in tax, or put it another way we get 5mouths wages out of 12 the greedy grabing british goverment grabs the rest or if two off you work full time only ones gets full year wages, the other gets 3 months if you combine the taxes together ,so i dont think we want any more bl%^ oh and we pay betweem 48,to 84 pence a liter in taxes for petrol

Score: 0

By andrewtheart

posted May 27, 2006 - 11:18 PM

SO...RETARDED!

It's really sick they even have the RIGHT to THINK about taxing SMS/ e-mails (especially e-mails).

Score: 0

By tscar12

edited May 27, 2006 - 10:46 PM

Just one more example of the EU, aka the fourth Reich, to tax the sh** out of people and still not do a good job of helping the poor and disinfranchised. The U.S. is no better under Bush. Gee, maybe i'll move back to Canada.

Score: 0

By zridling

posted May 29, 2006 - 6:10 PM

I'd move to Canada in a snap if I could. Been there. Envy that.

Score: 0

By toughfella

posted May 29, 2006 - 3:46 PM

O' Canada!

Score: 0

By robertguda

posted May 27, 2006 - 10:25 PM

does that mean that people's messages from outside the Eu will be blocked or the receiver will have to pay for that ? hmmm...cool way to bankrupt someone you dislike...I guess they dont now anymore what to put taxes on...its a miracle they havent taxed breathing yet (must be because of the foul air). how about putting some more taxes on being an EU representative ? ( maybe that will stop a lot of this nonsense from surfacing )...

Score: 0

By JustExtreme

posted May 27, 2006 - 7:02 AM

"By Murphmeister

posted May 26, 2006 - 11:36 PM

Just the kind of thing I have come to expect from the European Union, aka Fourth Reich."

Actually the Third Reich done much more good than the EU before the violence began, Germany was at an economic high.

Score: 0

By Mystiqq

posted May 28, 2006 - 1:12 PM

Now thats just stupid...

Ive seen some positive things about EU but nothing comes with a cost. One probable reason why EU needs to find new ways of getting money is probably because of the "success" of trying to figure out budget, which isnt exactly "smooth" from what ive heard.

When it comes to money, its "all for one and more for me".

Score: 0

By pevernagie

posted May 27, 2006 - 3:54 PM

Do you really believe that?

They created work by sending people to places like Dachau. If they had a job before being sent there, then there is now an opening.

They also created jobs by restarting their arms industry.

Score: 0

By RootWebGod

posted May 27, 2006 - 2:30 PM

Friendly FYI: There is a button just for that type of post; see "Post a Reply" under the message you want to respond to. ;)

Score: 0

By JustExtreme

posted May 27, 2006 - 7:01 AM

**** the EU, now I know why I saw those people in the street petitioning for the UK's detachment from it............bunch of lousy ****wits if you ask me!

Score: 0

By UTAKER

posted May 27, 2006 - 3:24 AM

one word to the EU
"l a m e" thinking

Score: 0

By pevernagie

posted May 27, 2006 - 2:31 AM

Well, if you think 17.5% VAT is high, I wouldn't recommend coming to Belgium. We have 21%.

The EU should stop funding the agriculture, because right now 80% of their budget is being used to keep agriculture going despite it clear inability to function on its own. On top of this, because the European farmers produce so much food, they have a surplus.

This surplus is sent to third world countries and dumped on the local markets at extreme low prices, which of course destroys local economy, seeing as local farmers would have to give their goods away for free to compete with the EU.
Above example is also the reason why charity creates extra poverty, instead of reducing it.

Score: 0

By Budgie29

posted May 28, 2006 - 12:10 PM

pevernagie
why should the Eu stop funing agriculture
for one it was put in place after the second wold war to encrouge Farmers to produce food for the nation and to keep prices in the shops at an afordable level

when today a Ton of wheat coats about £64 to produce and all the farmer gets is about £59 per ton during harvest thats where subcides help

People of Great britian food prices are going to rise because of all the imported produce
and the incresing price of fossil fuels due to it getting scarce .

what say if a spammer stole you Internet Id
and sent out 1,000,000 spam messages a day say an e-mail message costs 1p you would end up with a bill for £1750 per day for something you never did although you would be lieable for it.

tge resion for the CAP in the first place was to get britian producing food for the nation after WW2

what if we had the say thing happen again and all the farms were Golf courses or housing devloments .. we would go hungry

we have a surplus because of it ,i'n not knocking the farmer we have done more than any other indursty of what was asked of us all thoes years ago,
any counrty should have a surplus to componsate
for any droughts we may have and may be unable to grow our own food...

the eu are just a bunch buracratic wane kers
who have nothing positive to do exect create red tape to hustyfy their exsitince

Score: 0

By Fickleflame

posted May 28, 2006 - 1:35 PM

I have a solution. Looking at all the previous posts I believe there are simple answers.

1. Tax car makers for making Gasoline powered cars, and give taxes breaks for the release and distribution of Bio-Diesel fueled vehicles. Since Germany is home to makers such as Audi, Porsche, and BMW, their moves would influence the whole industry.

2. Use the current surplus of food from the EU and US reserves to start producing Bio-Fuel, and start taxing Oil imports to compliment the EU’s taxing bonanza. Give incentives and more tax breaks to distributors and consumers for switching to a clean alternative; this also tackles the global warming issues and oil dependence.

3. Start sending aid to third world countries in the form of Education, and farming supplies. i.e. Give a man a fish and he’ll eat for a day, teach a man to fish and he’ll eat for a lifetime. Food drops are only needed in dire situations.

4. Re-internalize the democratic platform. There is to much control in the hands of people who don’t deserve to have it. A system needs to be put in place where legislation can be approved by a independent group that will weight all the factors when it comes to new legislation, and then let the politicians haggle over its merits.

5. World unification. Some would say that Globalization is bringing the world together, no, its increasing conflict everywhere you look because countries are still governed the way they were one hundred years ago, by a small group of people. If this Globalization process is going to work, there needs to be a world government capable of controlling the chaos that is America, EU, Africa, South America, and what’s left of the Soviet Union, and the south Pacific. Without a global consensus of right and wrong, Globalization will only cause more wars, poverty, and ultimately are demise.

Those are my comments, take them or leave them.

Score: 0

By spef

posted May 29, 2006 - 9:03 AM

Answers 1 & 2 are already in effect over here in the Netherlands and other countries in Europe.
Answer 3 is a good solution but it isn't as easy as you're stating. Education is expensive and not possible everywhere. Sending money isn't also the answer because the money will often be used for other things than it was ment for. This is one of the reasons that food is being supplied.
On the other hand, Europe should stop subsidising its farmers and dumping the surplus of food on the world market.

Answer 4 is in my opinion just not neccesary because politicians are those independent people who make legislation.

Answer 5 is just a bit to utopic. The EU holds "only" 25 countries and even this has proven often to be too difficult.
And when even the US doesn't bother to ratify some major treaties (like the Kyoto-treatie) the whole UN is doomed to fail. As long as US politicians are too dependent of "large companies" there isn't going to change much.

Score: 0

By mancub

posted May 28, 2006 - 7:07 PM

i would think the methane thats coming out of all e.u goverment is anough to cause global warming

Score: 0

By Crispy777

posted May 27, 2006 - 2:07 PM

Here in Finland VAT is 22%

Score: 0

By Murphmeister

posted May 26, 2006 - 11:36 PM

Just the kind of thing I have come to expect from the European Union, aka Fourth Reich.

Score: 0

By GS5

edited May 26, 2006 - 10:07 PM

As a pilot I lived all over the world. And the EU by far has more taxes than any country I lived in. It's like they have people who's only job is to make up new things to tax. Now they want to tax the one thing that supposed to be free, that is just ridiculous.

And can somebody please tell me what the hell did they did with the half a billion Euro they swindled out of Microsoft?

Score: 0

By garou506

posted May 27, 2006 - 4:00 PM

Well I find that statement to be too much of a generalisation... Here in Canada where I live now, I have to pay Provincial income tax, Federal income tax, and 15% sales tax, school tax and property tax. Back in Ireland, there is no school or property tax, and one single income tax of only 20% compared to the 20% AND around 16% here in Canada (lower end cut off). The 21% VAT in Ireland seems like nothing compared to the high taxes here. Maybe you need to redefine the "EU?" has more taxes? Because Ireland is a member of the EU... It almost looks like you are comparing the EU to "any other county" you worked in.. Well it's not, it's just the name for a bunch of separate countries who agree on certain shared policies. And as for Microsoft.... I wont even go there!

Score: 0

By sjc001

posted May 27, 2006 - 4:22 PM

Canada has the second lowest taxes in the Industrialized world. The USA has the lowest.

Score: 0

By zridling

posted May 29, 2006 - 6:18 PM

The US also has the lowest relative wages, no healthcare for 40% of its population, and for me, I pay about 45% of my income to taxes — sales, income, property, state, local, utilities, and what the government calls "fees" (aka taxes) on everything you do from driving a car to picking up the phone to buying a license.

Score: 0

By garou506

edited May 27, 2006 - 5:27 PM

Again, as i just said... in Canada we pay very high taxes because we pay 3 levels of tax (Provincial, Federal and Municipal) ... I dont see how 20% on all my income + 16% on all my income + annual property tax to my muncipality is lower than Ireland's 20% on all my income with a higher cut off point and no municipal tax. You must be referring to the federal tax rate alone without considering all the taxes we pay. (The rates might be low, but we pay more taxes than many EU countries).

Score: 0

By Babylon2x

posted May 26, 2006 - 9:20 PM

What the hell. It already feels like, living in the UK, I've been taxed into a completely new dimension. Now the EU are trying to find ways to tax me on top of the already too numerous UK taxes, and insanely high VAT (like Sales Tax) of 17.5%.

Geez, when will they cut us a break. Can't they leave anything untaxed? What is it with these people?! I don't care if their tax is 0.000000000000000001% email, I just wish they'd leave the internet alone and stop trying to find ways to tax it. They probably tax the ISPs already. God, how sickening. Plenty of people don't even want this EU crap.

Score: 0

By iamtux

posted May 26, 2006 - 9:13 PM

What? The money they sucked out of M$ isn't enough? This is ridiculous.

Score: 0

By templar™

posted May 26, 2006 - 8:27 PM

"...looks for new ways to fund itself."

That says it all. At least we now know for sure the real reason behind their actions against Microsoft.

Score: 0

By bourgeoisdude

posted May 26, 2006 - 7:04 PM

Apparently this means unofficially that Microsoft won the appeal :) Also seems to indicate that the original 437 million euro fine (the highest fine ever imposed in the world against a single company) is too little for their poor empty pockets. If the Microsoft appeal did not work, that means the EU has the worst budget in the Universe.

On the flip side--an email tax could significantly lessen the volume of spam from the EU :)

Score: 0

By Crispy777

posted May 27, 2006 - 2:11 PM

Tha MS 0.43€ billion is not that much in the ~100€ B EU budget.

It's nothing compared to the US ~$250B spent on firewoks in the far east.

Score: 0

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