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Taxing Text Messages?

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the bright-ideas dept.

Makarand writes "SMS is a very popular way of communication in the Phillipines with an estimated 14 million phone subscribers sending an average of 10 text messages a day. However, that may all change if a proposal from the IMF to impose a tax on SMS is implemented to solve the country's fiscal problems according to an article in The Straits Times. The IMF is basing its suggestion on the fact that the country's tax base currently rests on the troubled sectors of the economy- banking and manufacturing, which cannot be squeezed anymore. Hopefully, our political think tanks will not get any such ideas."

11 of 173 comments (clear)

  1. Proves the old thought by dWhisper · · Score: 1, Insightful

    They will tax you for anything, up to and including dying.

    1. Re:Proves the old thought by spongman · · Score: 3, Insightful

      The price of a bullet, damn that's cheap! Here in the good ole US of A they take half of everything you own.

  2. In the US you are taxed for phone text messages by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    The $0.10-$0.05 per message is taxed.

    If you want to look at it, the $0.05 per message is a 'tax' for sending a message. What's neat about it is you are charged, and there is no guarentee of delivery.

  3. It's capitalising on emotions by gazbo · · Score: 2, Insightful
    The thing to remember is that the reason SMS is so popular is because it's a fast, cheap and easy way of keeping in touch with loved ones. While people need love, people are going to use this type of communication; it is reprehensible that there should be a tax on this sort of thing.

    This just shows that governments around the globe are all really after one thing - money. Usually it is at the cost of freedoms, but now it is at the cost of emotions. How low can we get?

  4. Re:What's the problem? by Agent+Green · · Score: 2, Insightful

    And if 1/10th of a cent is no problem for consumers, what's the government to say "hey, why not make this 1/2 a cent...surely they'll be willing to pay 5 cents of taxes per day."

    As soon as you let something be taxed, there will be no end to it. Governments are greedy like that.

    --
    // Agent Green (Ian / IU7 / KB1JQO)
    // IEEE 802.3: All 10base Are Belong To Us
  5. It's the IMF! by Mel · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Bear in mind that the IMF are only brought in when the country is seriously screwed with it's economy already. When they are "advising" the government, they will take whatever steps are necesssary to get the country back on track rather than falling further into financial ruin. They often will take sometimes drastic measures and it is expected it is going to be a tough 5 to 10 years for the countries population. At least in this case, taxing SMS messages, which already happens in a number of countries (I'm taxed 2.5c (Euro cent) per text message which is tax at 21%) . This issue is not one to get into a twist over.

  6. HUH? by jonr · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Aren't SMS already taxed? You pay for each SMS message, it shows up on your phonebill, and then the government adds salestax or value added tax. End of story.
    I assume that phone companies pay taxes there, like every other businesses....
    J.

  7. Re:What's the problem? by geirhe · · Score: 2, Insightful
    It certainly beats putting huge amounts of tax on addictive or necessary products such as cigarettes and gasoline like we do here in North America


    If my calculations are not totally off, we were at $5.5/gallon for unleaded petrol two years back in Norway. Guess what most of that money goes?

    We pay about $4 a gallon nowadays, and think that is dirt cheap. Most of that is still taxes.

    Petrol is not heavily taxed in the US, unless something fundamental has happened the last couple of years.
  8. Tax on the stupid? by dpt · · Score: 5, Insightful

    So, given the demographic that seems to like "texting", isn't this like lotteries ie. a tax on stupid people? It seems to me to be only interesting to people for which email is some sort of "novelty".

    Text messages are *ridiculously* expensive already, for what you get. Think about the cost per byte that they are charging people! I'd be prepared to pay a very small flat monthly fee to send as many messages as I like. Any thing else is simply price gouging.

    Not to mention that they take too long to compose. It amuses me to watch Joe Average compose one of these things. In the time it took to compose the message and send it, they could have called the recepient 10 times already, and sorted out whatever it was in 30 seconds, or left a message at the speed at which they can speak.

    Still, no one ever underestimated the intelligence and taste of the general public ... and with the baffling popularity of "texting", this trend looks set to continue into a new century.

  9. Re:What's the problem? by current93 · · Score: 2, Insightful

    I can certainly verify that this will affect the poorer demographic. A cell phone is the first purchase a Filipino will make when attempting to raise himself above middle class. Networking is very big here and unemployment is so high your only real chance of obtaining a job in the city is through a referral.

    Everything is paid with "prepay" phone cards so even the poorest can take advantage of them. Texting is not completely free here (around 4 - 12 cents depending on what network you are dialing), but in a country where college graduates make around $300/mo people tend to be resourceful.

  10. Re:SMS pricing by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful
    Besides, in some countries, receiving SMS is free, and the only one who gets charged is the sender.

    Make that "in every country except that one that seems to do wireless-everything ass backwards".