Email tax, forums, spam, online gaming, and you., The ramifications of taxing the internet Options

[Buzzed]

This forum is a marvel of 21st century innovation. We can come together to discuss games and even play from time to time. This may change though depending on what happens on Capital Hill.

There are a lot of people out there that think taxing email will solve the spam problem. See this example. It would kill spam, they are correct, but it would also kill almost all email if it did. Now what would happen after email gets taxed? Forums and instant messengers would become the mainstream communication tool. Who is to say these things wouldn't get taxed too? That would kill online role playing. It would kill this forum too. Would you want to pay $0.10 for each post? OUCH!

Ok, let's say its just a 1-time tax for registering. How many forums are you registered to? It adds up. Ok so now the forums charge a tax of $0.10 for each registration. If those users are willing to fork over a dime to the government, it wouldn't hurt to have them fork over a dime to the forum's server administrator while they are at it. (The adminstrator deserves that dime much more then the government does.)

You can see the pattern forming here. Any form of internet tax would basically kill the internet, which is why there is currently the internet tax ban. However, there will soon be a vote that might eliminate that ban, opening the floodgates of doom onto the internet.

So much for online gaming, it was fun while it lasted.

[nezumi]

The idea of taxing e-mail has been around now for about 25 years. However, it's never been really acted upon, and even if congress looks at it, I seriously doubt they'll ever actually put an e-mail tax on it (there are too many people who would disagree with it). Plus, it'll be pretty darn hard to enforce. I DO expect they will begin taxing online sales, but they'll never be able to tax e-mail.

[Buzzed]

I think taxing all communications should be banned, including phone calls.

The only thing state and local should charge for is the 911 service, and do not call enforcement.

"Federal connection charge" <--- kill it
"State connection charge" <--- kill it

[nezumi]

Why do you say that? The state pays money when dealing with the phone company. I have no problem paying for what I use.

[Tanka]

I don't think it'll get passed just because of all the groups out there entirely for free internet everything. Excluding a few obvious things, like purchases and so forth.

Besides, what then? If we're taxed on e-mails, somebody can simply make their own mailserver for free and provide it to the public. It's not like we can't make a new SMTP/POP3 protocol.

[Zolhex]

Ok this is nothing but a rumor it has been researched go here to read. http://www.truthorfiction.com/rumors/p/postoffice.htm

[Tanka]

Uh, sorry to burst your bubble, but the vote is not a rumor. It's actually going through the Senate right now.

We can only hope the Senate puts the ban on internet taxing. There are just too many ways to avoid it.

[Zolhex]

Ok I just visited this site: http://www.senate.gov/pagelayout/legislati...lative_home.htm

Neat thing about living in the United States of America we the people have the power therefore we have a right to know what is happening. So I looked for your e-mail tax and there was nothing pertaining to the taxing of e-mail so I guess I was right when I said this is just a rumor. However if you can find proof of said Active Legislation then please share it with me. Till then have a nice day.

50 Bills from the 108th Congress ranked by relevance on"e-mail tax ".

0 bills containing your phrase exactly as entered.
0 bills containing all your search words near each other in any order.
50 bills containing all your search words but not near each other.
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50 Bills from the 108th Congress ranked by relevance on"taxing e-mail ".

0 bills containing your phrase exactly as entered.
0 bills containing all your search words near each other in any order.
13 bills containing all your search words but not near each other.
37 bills containing one or more of your search words.

[Tanka]

The vote has yet to hit the floor. It's being held off so they can tax the internet. Right now a non-limited ban is up, but, if the Senate holds the bill long enough, it will never come to light, and the tax will come to play rather quickly.

[Aristotle]

This was borderline off-topic to start with, and hasn't gotten any closer to the mark. If you want to discuss general stuff, I would suggest you find a general stuff forum somewhere to do so. If you want to discuss this here, find a way to bring it on topic.

[nezumi]

In shadowrun they still have e-mail which people access for free, so its obvious that the bill won't pass : P (or maybe they did and the UCAS threw it out)

Okay, here's a better tie in. Yes, you can tax monetary transactions. That's easy, you find the companies in the US which sell things online and get them in trouble if they don't cough up tax on what they sell. It doesn't actually involve the internet at all (and that is the bill that is, or shortly will be in debate). However, with e-mail its impossible. Its the nature of the internet is that its too easy to set up an e-mail server; this is the same reason why spam exists, the system simply is not made such that it can stop people from sending or receiving mail. So even if the bill passed, we would all laugh merrily to ourselves and life would go on (FYI, I'm still interested in seeing a legit source say there is such a bill in serious consideration).

HOWEVER... There has recently been an experiment in several universities to reinvent the internet. One of the big bonuses is a serious bandwidth increase (on the order of gigs a second). This is enough to transmit real time video. IF some universities got together and made up a better protocol to transfer data, especially at that speed, the internet as we know it would be a thing of the past. The government could have a hand in setting up whatever conditions they'd like and a new protocol could be enacted which would allow for taxing e-mails. Also, given the bandwidth, it could setup a better protocol for dealing with a GUI internet interface, which, in turn, will naturally lead more easily into the whole world experience our favorite deckers encounter. This might not seem like a big thing for people who don't know the web, but in reality it would make the command line obsolete and would serve as an excellent explanation as to why deckers always want the bestest, fastest graphical interface, and can never ever use a command line.

So maybe taxing e-mail will be the catalyst that will lead to our full sensory input internet experience and the death of the command line? I'll believe it when I see it ; P

[Kagetenshi]

Eww... no command line? Ick.

~J

[Hot Wheels]

They can't control on line porn, Spam or gambling, servers will just move off shore, if they make it for americans receiving, then it would put us behind the technological edge with the europeans who would get it for free. The only logical way to do it would be like a tax for having an internet connection.
as for on line purchaees, they are supposed to be doing that already. If the on line store has a phyiscal store in your state, they automatically charge you the slaes tax- for example Victoria's Secrets has lots of stores in New York. If you go on line or catalogue, they charge you the tax.
You're supposed to report the purchases to your home state if they don't charge you and joyfully pay the tax of your own free will. I expect this is the easiest thing to close up, requiring internet companies to charge slaes tax.

[Aristotle]

I don't think there was much hope of bringing this thread back on topic. I'm going to shut it down. We welcome you to discuss games here at Dumpshock, but please leave the lounge type posts to more appropriate forums. There are several good ones out there.