May 27th, 2006
EU Considering SMS, Email Tax
By Michael Santo
Contributing Writer, RealTechNews
The European Union is investigating possible taxes on emails and SMS messages as a new source of funds for the 25 member bloc. A European Parliament working group, headed by Alain Lamassoure, a prominent French MEP, is doing the investigation. Initial proposals are 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.
In Italy, the concept of a tax on texting was floated in the past, as a way to help offset the country’s huge deficit, although it was flatly rejected by the outgoing government. Source: Reuters via Yahoo! News UK
We Say: Questions still open: who pays … sender, receiver? Both? What about emails or even text messages sent from outside the EU? How will it be collected? And here’s a big one — what about spam, which constitutes more email than legitimate messages? Well, as they say, nothing is certain but death and taxes … even when messaging, it seems.
Ron Ingram says:
Have another tea party!
May 27th, 2006 at 1:00 pm
Mike T says:
This is why Europe will always be an also-ran in the world community.
The only things they know how to do are tax their citizens and hide from threats.
Mike T
May 28th, 2006 at 5:14 am
Dave Barnes says:
Also ran? How about a 1 cent euro tax on every aucessful time spent in front of a urinal?
Think about it. Only those “pig males” pay.
You only pay for relief.
The amount is just a drop in the bucket.
The amount is pissant.
You are not forced to pay, you can always pee in the street.
You are not forced to pay, you can always wear diapers.
,dave
P.S. Sorry, out of ideas, gotta pee.
May 28th, 2006 at 7:39 pm
Bill M says:
As long as the amount is paid by the sender — so what? Make it a quarter, and the spammers can all dry up and blow away.
May 31st, 2006 at 6:18 am