Dean's World

European E-Mail Tax?

Dean

There used to be a semi-regular urban legend that rocketed around the internet every couple of years, that the FCC was considering putting a tax on emails. Thanks to a lot of rigorous debunking, this myth seems mostly to have subsided, but I bet it comes back again soon. Because unless CNet has started publishing rumors, the European parliament is debating taxing emails and instant messaging.

This is probably a very bad idea, but I'm not looking forward to my mailbox being glutted again with rumors that the U.S. Congress or the FCC are thinking about this too.

(Thanks Sam.)

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alan:

How about revenue neutral system: a penny tax for each e-mail sent with a penny credit for each e-mail received.

5.30.2006 8:57pm

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steveH:

I *really* hope that I can cash that credit; I get a *lot* more email than I send out.

Most of it ho-hum spam, but still...

5.30.2006 9:41pm

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Nicholas V. (mail) (www):

I think that's the point, if alan's scheme were implemented spam would become very expensive (and we would be paid to receive it).

I like it. Although, I'm worried (a) it would be hard to implement and (b) it would be hijacked and quickly become a way for the gubment to take more of our money.

Perhaps it needs to be regulated by some kind of neutral third party, but they usually get a bit weird, look at ICANN.

5.30.2006 10:02pm

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Arnold Harris (mail):

If I were a religious guy, I might say that the real tax on the internet is being collected by that old deceiver Satan. Because he sure finds work for idle hands. And so long as our eyeballs are glued to this or that website, the way a previous generation of Americans turned into couch potatoes watching endless and mindless television, nobody got much productive work done.

But of course I'm not a religious guy, and there is no Satan. Right?

Arnold Harris
Mount Horeb WI

5.30.2006 11:09pm

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Deanna Barr (mail):

How would such a tax work in the US? How could it be governed and calculated? What would it do to businesses...i.e., in the utility I work for, we use email every day, all day long, to disseminate information between employees. Businesses aren't going to be in business long before such a tax would be financially crippling.

I suspect were such a thing to be implemented, it wouldn't be long before the technogods would find another avenue of communication to bypass the tax, and the "gubment" would have to find a way to tax the new technology.

6.1.2006 4:45pm