Will WiFi Be Taxed?
September 12, 2007 by Miranda Marquit
Filed under Finance
One of the questions circulating about the Internet right now is whether or not WiFi will be taxed. Or the Internet in general. The Internet has grown out of innovation and competition, and has been remarkably free from government interference. But between Net Neutrality and the upcoming expiration of a moratorium on federal Internet taxes, it is apparent that the government is trying to stick its fingers in the pie.
Right now, MyWireless.org is working to drum up support for the Permanent Internet Tac Freedom Act of 2007 through a letter writing campaign to Congresspeople. You can go and fill out a form, and it will be sent to your Senators and Representatives.
However, I have found that it is more effective to actually write your Congressional representatives yourself. You can usually go to the Web sites of your reps and email them from there. Then you can write them a personal email that doesn’t smack of a writing campaign.
Paying taxes is part of civic duty. But at a certain point you realize that you are being nickeled and dimed into submission, and that doesn’t bode well for yielding wealth.
I guess it’s just my own weirdness, but it’s not paying taxes that bothers me as much as the universal stupidity of how they’re spent!
I agree completely. Some of the stuff that the government spends money on…grrr…
The one nice thing about this act is that it keeps state and local governments from taxing the internet until the feds finally decide what to do… I think government officials see this as easy revenue a la cell phone taxes. But it’s a scary proposition if each government can launch different tax schemes on what is really an intangible service.
Good point. I can imagine all sorts of ways the government would tax the Internet…connection fees, Federal sales tax on Internet purchases (some states, like here in Utah, make you pay sales tax on online purchases), different taxes for visiting different Web sites…the list goes on