Florida Proposes Taxing Local LANs

Vellmont writes "From the state that brought you the 2000 presidential election debacle, now comes the proposal to tax your LAN. The Orlando Business Journal is reporting that the the state of Florida is thinking about putting a 9% tax on LANs within the state. Exactly what they will be taxing isn't clear, since the tax amounts to 9% of... something. Will taxing the electrical wires within your home be next?"

Comments

Re:Who the hell is going to enforce this?

[canajin56]

The tax will be applied to sales of network cables, routers, network cards, etc. They will no more audit you for having a network than they currently enforce alcohol taxes by auditing you for what you drank last night.

what they are taxing...

[ih8apple]

according to this article: "Computer networks would be taxed at that percent on either annual lease payments or depreciation."

Re:Tax on purchase?

[syates21]

Hmm, after a little further digging, it looks like rule the are referring to governs taxes on operating costs, not purchase.

There's a nice blurb at DSLReports about it.

Re:Here's a good reason WHY this is being attempte

[Mad Man]

re: Here's a good reason WHY this is being attempted.


Here's why you'll start seeing more crazy-sounding initiatives like this "lan tax":

Didn't Vice President Gore support a telecommunications tax? And didn't several states want to tax internet commerce during the dot-com boom of the late 1990s?

This is kinda like giving a total stranger $100K and expecting him to spend it in ways that help you while not giving him any expectations on how to spend it

So taking less money from taxpayers is the same as giving it to strangers? Funny -- I thought paying taxes was more like giving money to strangers.

many of our brave soldiers sacrificing their lives in Iraq will receive PAY CUTS of around $200/month.

After the Wall Street Journal cited a story about the $200 pay cut, printed this clarification:

Not So Foolish
We heard from numerous servicemen, ex-servicemen and relatives of servicemen who took issue with the articles we cited in our item yesterday on pay and benefits for the troops on duty in Iraq and Afghanistan. Capt. Jamie Flanders of the Air Force writes:

Neither the Pentagon nor Congress has any plans of removing the family-separation allowance or the hostile fire/imminent danger pay from all of our deployed troops.

I am currently deployed to Uzbekistan in support of Operation Enduring Freedom. As a captain (O-3) and a deployed member, I am entitled to the following benefits in addition to my regular pay:

* $3.50 per diem (to cover miscellaneous expenses, soap, snacks, etc). $3.50 per day for one 30-day month comes to $105. This is the least amount given to every deployed military member and may be increased based on the cost of living in the deployed area.

* Hostile fire/imminent danger pay. Currently set at $150 a month for members deployed in support of Operations Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom. The Pentagon is reviewing whether or not those areas that are no longer considered dangerous deserve this specific pay. This will not affect those members deployed to Iraq or Afghanistan.

* Family separation allowance. Currently set at $250 per month. This pay is given to any military member who is away from his family for at least 30 days. Congress increased the amount to $250 from $150 a month after Sept. 2001 and reviews it each fiscal year to determine whether to should drop it back to $150.

* Tax-free status. Given to every military member deployed to a combat/imminent danger zone. And this amount is not prorated. If I deploy on June 30, my pay for the entire month of June is tax free. If I go home on July 1, all of July is tax-free as well. This is given to the military member by not withholding FICA from his monthly paycheck--and that month is not considered part of total taxable income on the W-2. As a captain with 10 years of total military service, my monthly pay increased approximately by $600.

So for my deployment to Uzbekistan, I receive additional benefits totaling $1,105 a month. In the worst-case scenario, the Pentagon is considering for my area to remove hostile fire pay and reduce family separation back to $150. Based on that, my total benefits would drop to $855.

Many readers also pointed out that in addition to the $6,000 death benefit for families of servicemen killed in action, the Department of Veterans Affairs also offers low-cost Servicemembers' Group Life Insurance, which pays even if a soldier or veteran dies while not on duty.


Note the "tax free status," which is like giving money to a rich stranger.

Don't be surprised if you find import

Let Me Explain Something About Florida

[Greyfox]

Florida doesn't have an income tax, so they're always scrounging around for someone they can screw out of some money. Case in point: their illegal vehicular "impact fee" that they had in place a few years back. When you moved into the state, they'd ding you for $600 to register your car the first year. Subsequently ruled an illegal tax by some federal court or other.

Now it's IT Company story time! Everyone gather 'round! Ready? Once upon a time, a huge IT company by the name of IBM opened an office in Boca Raton, Florida. The ever-money hungry Floridian politicians, sensing a windfall, quickly went to work to enact legislation allowing the state of Florida to tax IBM's entire profits because they had a presense in Florida. IBM said "Screw you guys, we're going North!" The legislation was quickly dropped after that, but IBM held a grudge after that and eventually closed the IBM Boca plant (Which was by far the most beautiful one I've worked at to date) in the mid 90's, costing thousands of jobs in the Boca Raton area. The moral of this story is that you can try to fix something after you've broken it, but it probably won't do much good in the long run.

Oh yeah and a while back they also played the most self-rightious and annoying commercial about how if you went out of state and bought something, you owed Florida sales tax on it. So I'd like to send mad propz out to the penis of the country.

Re:Maybe I have missed somthing...

[jc42]

To put it in perspective, we might note that there is a long history of this sort of tax on personal things that don't affect others. The general term is "luxury tax".

Some of these taxes have been rather extreme. In several histories, I've read the claim that the biggest documented improvement in human health was in the UK early in the 1800's, when Parliament repealed the luxury tax on soap. Just think about that one for a moment ...

"Those people are all so smelly; I don't know how they stand it."

A special tax just for the privelege of having your two computers talk to each other is small stuff in comparison.

Texas Constitution

[anomaly]

I'm not constitutional scholar, but with my vast experience (5 minutes with Google's help) it looks like you just have to be 30 and have lived there for 5 years