UK Government to Tax Linux?

An anonymous reader writes "The UK government is looking at introducing a tax aimed at software published under GNU GPL. It claims that because programmers do it for free, it is losing out on income tax and that commercial software companies (read Microsoft) are at a disadvantage. Some pressure group has already put up a website with more details and news site Techworld have got a quote from a Treasury spokesman saying that they're only considering it."

Comments

OMG

[Anonymous Coward]

Worst April Fool's article ever

Re:OMG

[Total_Wimp]

So, are all of the articles today April Fools jokes or are some of them real?

I'm just picturing an out-of-work programer named B0b getting taxed for developing open source missles and then needing to get free food to survive and keep programing. B0b's a tough, dedicated bastard.

TW

Re:OMG

[mentokthemindtaker]

What? Real articles? On Slashdot?

Even a 100% tax is ok

[AtariAmarok]

What is 100% of "free"?

Re:Even a 100% tax is ok

[bheer]

I know this is a joke, but in a way the UK (any .gov, really) bills open source already. Folk who install/deploy/sell Linux solutions pay Value Added Tax on the services they render. The only reason open source volunteers are -- and will remain -- exempt is that they don't enter into transactions with the organizations they're volunteering code to. You can't tax volunteer activity.

Re:Even a 100% tax is ok

[M.C. Hampster]

Actually, the reason they can't use the VAT on open source work is that usually, there is no value-added.

Yeah, I got karma to burn.

Re:Even a 100% tax is ok

[Hieronymus Howard]

Ah, but it's not 100% of free

Re:Even a 100% tax is ok

[Gadzinka]

No, it isn't.

There was an attempt in Poland to tax linux this way. The thinking behind it was that if it is a gift for a commercial entity, than said entity has to pay Donation and Inheritance tax for it. And the base for this tax wouldn't be the price paid (zero). As it is with all donations, the base for the purpose of taxation is normal market price. Polish Revenue Service wanted it to be price of MS Office for OOo and price of Win NT/2k for Linux system.

Now, this news we are writing about is April 1st, but the history with trying to tax Linux, Open Office etc in Poland was true. Luckily it failed, although Finance Ministry didn't issue official statement or act about it in order to not tie hands of some enterprising clerks in revenue service.

Unfortunatelly I cannot find anything about it in English. If you know Polish google for site:linuxnews.pl podatek

Robert

Re:Even a 100% tax is ok

[ajs318]

VAT is sales tax and is chargeable on anything not considered "essential". The definition is somewhat subjective. VAT is not, for instance, charged on children's clothes {though it is charged on adults' clothes} nor on basic foodstuffs for preparation at home {but it is charged on take-away food}. Newspapers, magazines and books are not subject to VAT either.

Re:Even a 100% tax is ok

[ballpoint]

You can't tax volunteer activity

Oh yes, my government can.

If you build a house in my country, and get help from a volunteering friend, you have to be extremely careful to avoid paying VAT on his/her services. The government will assess the house, and calculate a higher VAT amount if they think that you haven't payed enough.

That sucks

[NanoGator]

At least with the Microsoft tax, I get a neat holographic coaster.

tax it all you want...

[Hooya]

a 100% sales tax on $0 = $0. sheesh.

Re:tax it all you want...

[Sesostris III]

Er, no. It is 100% tax on $699 surely?

I make that ... $699!

Re:tax it all you want...

[spoonboy42]

That's totally irrelevant, my friend, as a 100% tax on zero pounds sterling = 0 pounds.

Re:tax it all you want...

[zakezuke]

a 100% sales tax on $0 = $0. sheesh.

I wanted to give my niece my old car. The car was a piece of junk, but it was a running piece of junk. If I were to "give" her the car, then the state would charge her tax on what it estimates it's value to be, which I'm told was between $750-$1500... basicly base price for a running car. Tax in her region would have been 8.5% if i'm not mistaken... plus misc fees and such. Fair and reasonable, but still a $63.75 fee + misc other fees involved in the transfer of a car and yearly taxes.

Even selling it to her for $1.00 the state would be skeptical as to whether this was an honest deal, or a trick to avoid paying sales tax. I had to sign an statement of the car's value. Which was fine by me.. I signed a statement saying "it's had accidents, it has over 350,000 miles on it, family $1.00, non family $100.00".

The point is you can tax things with no value, or little value. It could be a flat non percent tax, or a tax of what the goverment believes the value should be.

Thank God!

[Knight Thrasher]

Real news on April 1st! Thank you! And please dear LORD no Open Source Tax!

Re:Thank God!

[Anonymous Coward]

Real news on April 1st! ...to make up for the bullshit we get on the other 364 days.

Great

[Anonymous Coward]

So, a tax on my free time is it?

What next? Sexual Enjoyment Tax??

Re:Great

[bigHairyDog]

What next? Sexual Enjoyment Tax??

No, I think most /.ers would be immune from that one...

Bernie :o)

Re:Great

[Phekko]

What, in Britain? Don't be daft, nobody enjoys it there ;)

Re:Great

[stephenisu]

actually they call it a repetitive stress injury.. or carpal tunnel.

Re:Great

[gellenburg]

Yes.

It would be called the Sexual Enjoyment Tax Initiative.

We will be releasing a distributed client to assist in this endeavour called "SETI@Home".

Have a good day.

Re:Great

[Anonymous Coward]

its in their best interest to charge you a tax for doing nothing.

Well, this certainly is an issue to be evaluated. Consider the following activities:

- volunteer work: This deprives the government of rightful tax funds as individuals and organizations conspire to provided services often in competition with the government. Better to have you work an extra 20 hours weekly at your job, apply a tax and then have the government provide those charitable services. Not only is volunteerism cheating the government from rightful funds, but it's depriving them of applying all those helpful "strings" and conditions to the money and resources provided to the needy.

- unemployment: What are you unemployed bums doing? Not paying taxes, for certain, if you've had your unemployment benefits lapse. This is shameful citizenship and it needs to be dealt with per firm, forceful action. Unemployed individuals should be taxed $10/hour for every hour under 40 they do not work. This would affect the underemployed as well and motivate them to take that extra gas station or telemarketing job.

You people need to understand that your government has costs. Paying large Senate salaries to Senators who are too busy to show up for work, sending billions of pork to wealthy incumbant telephone companies under the guise of "providing broadband" (new broadband providers meeting the challenge need not apply per the rules - you don't return enough funds to your Congresspersons wallet), etc. all take lots of cash, and if you fools wanna prevent further increases in the deficit, you're gonna have to pay for that free time.

Re:Great

[Mateito]

> What next? Sexual Enjoyment Tax??

You're not married, are you?
Some of us already pay that.

(You insensitive clod!)

Re:Great

[w42w42]

Already done. It's called child.

Re:Great

[Bigman]

I have a 'settee at home'.. and it has contributed to my sexual enjoyment at times...

lol

Very cute.

[Jaywalk]

And the "what you can do" plea to get readers to get major news organizations to pick up the story is a nice touch. Nice example of viral marketing. It would be a bit more convincing -- but less funny -- if they got people to write Parliament instead.

I'd dearly love to see Forbes get suckered by this one. They've been such dorks about anything to do with Linux, it would be par for the course. It looks like they bought the Google mail story hook, line and sinker.

Re:Very cute.

[Draoi]

It looks like they bought the Google mail story hook, line and sinker.

Actually, it's true

And hey look, Slashdot got a mention;

"It's going to go down in history as one of the biggest pranks ever pulled," wrote one message poster at Slashdot.org, which bills itself as a news provider for nerds.

Re:Looking for a date!

[Anonymous Coward]

What the fuck? I just got mod points and I tried to mod this post up. When I did I got a message that said it was "administratively frozen" and that users cannot moderate it.

WTF?!?!?!

California already collects tax on Linux

[Texas Rose on Lava L]

The 8% sales tax comes to $55.92 per Linux installation.

eDrugTrader disagrees

[Deraj DeZine]

If you like shiny plastic and psychedelic colors, I would say that your money might have been better spent on hallucinogenic drugs.

This one isn't a joke

[Meor]

This being published today is just a coincidence. Check the BBC, it's been in process for a while. Puting things out for free is a compeditive advantage analogous to Microsoft providing free browsers when there is a commercial alternative.

Personally I welcome the tax, I think it will even out the playing field a bit and create competition.

If it only was a joke

[pdan]

In my country (Poland) a few years ago they decided that they should put VAT (value added tax) on free software. They found some law that enables tax officials to reassess value of goods if they seem underpriced. They assumed value of a Linux distro to be a price (not value of course) of Windows Server and for Open Office of MS Office Pro.
Fortunately all media ridiculed this idea and they backed off.

Re:OK, I'm bored

[NanoGator]

"OK, I'm bored of the April fools jokes... 5 in one day is excessive."

Every single April 1st, there's always some git who gets modded up for saying the exact same thing. Slashdot's been running 365/24/7, you can can take a day off for silliness.

Re:OK, I'm bored

[chef_raekwon]

of the April fools jokes... 5 in one day is excessive.

you think that is excessive - maybe you should try working instead of trolling on slashdot. now that, is excessive, my friend.

The Brits Would Tax Your TV If They Could...

[xxxJonBoyxxx]

The Brits Would Tax Your TV If They Could...oh wait...

Re:The Brits Would Tax Your TV If They Could...

[radish]

Funny that. I recently moved to NYC from London, and although there's no TV License here, I have a whole bunch of weird surcharges and taxes on my cable bill (other than regular sales tax). These add up to considerably more than my TV License used to cost in the UK. So I pay more, and get much worse TV for it. Oh well.

Microsoft wants this.

[rice_burners_suck]

Upon receipt of this news, Bill Gates ordered every lobbyist at Microsoft to stop whatever they're doing and lobby the government for a tax on GPL software in the U.S. as well.

thingy!

[stevenrieder]

Obligatory Monty Python sketch:

Third Official: "Well most things we do for pleasure nowadays are taxed, except one."
Politician: "What do you mean?"
Third Official: "Well, er, smoking's been taxed, drinking's been taxed but not ... thingy."
Politician: "Good Lord, you're not suggesting we should tax... thingy?"
First Official: "Poo poo's?"
Third Official: "No."
First Official: "Thank God for that. Excuse me for a moment." (leaves)
Third Official: "No, no, no - thingy."
Second Official: "Number ones?"
Third Official: "No, thingy."
Politician: "Thingy!"
Second Official: "Ah, thingy. Well it'll certainly make chartered accountancy a much more interesting job."

What?

[vwjeff]

Another April Fools article. We all know that Linux is not real. You can't tax something that does not exist. Grow up people.

Re:What?

[eclectro]

Another April Fools article. We all know that Linux is not real

Yeah, I heard that they stole all the code from SCO.

RTFA

[Beliskner]

What is 100% of "free"?

RTFA! They want to tax the sale of open source software. I can see their point, if I'm on welfare and I write an OSS version of Oracle 10i which gets included free into the next version of Mandrake, I've just put ten thousand Oracle people out of their jobs, and if Oracle goes bankrupt, then the Country's Banks will have to write off those massive debts. Argentina comes to mind.

Great day for bad news

[rjelks]

This is a little offtopic like many of the posts today. What better day to release a bomb on the tech community. If I were in charge of PR for a government agency or large company, I'd use April 1st to announce bad news. No one would believe it. Not that I think the UK is going to tax linux, but I wonder if anyone is sneaking in potentially bad news today in the hopes that it will be ignored as a joke.

-

Time to tax IE and all of the other free software.

[westfirst]

Microsoft "gives away" IE. Sounds like a taxable item to me. And they give away plenty of other pieces of software for various reasons. Salesforces everywhere are known for claiming that someone is getting thousands of dollars of freebees, if they only purchase this minute. Gads, I think proprietary software companies "give away" more software than open source groups.

I don't remember ...

[ToadMan8]

April fools being this Stupid. An I getting older or is this year particularly Stupid? what a waste to have Mod points today! And to make matters Worse, SlashDot's accuracy typically so questionable I have no idea which to take as seriously as usual.

Re:I don't remember ...

[bogie]

The thing is its just not really funny anymore. Now we know to expect it and that takes all of the fun out of it. Really it would be better to make this a regular news day and then add in one fake story.

April fools and big pranks are still funny depending on the situation. Just not at slashdot.

If it can be taxed, donations can be deducted!

[ibirman]

I gave away at least 100 CDs with Linux on them over the past year. Can I take a tax deduction on each one?

What will the UK value each copy at? I would say a complete distribution with software should be valued at $50,000US. So my charitable contributions are easily worth a few million.

This just in...

[GPLDAN]

The UK has decided to Tax performances of Shakespeare in the park. "Giving away performances of Hamlet lowers the box office revenues of England's finest theaters", Tony Blair was heard to say. "It's got to stop, this giving things away. It's anti-Ameri... uh, it's not becoming of the nation."

Elsewhere, the Queen Mum was heard to exclaim, "Taxation, taxation, taxation! My forefathers believed in it, and look what happened to them!"

SCO Surges

[adler187]

In related news, gullible SCO investors who read the article have predicted the demise of Linux and have invested heavily in SCO. Just look at the surging stock price of SCOX!

(Man I wish that was an april fools joke and that SCOX had really crashed, well there's always tomorrow)

Re:Looking for a date!

[perdu]

That's cause mod points are now taxed....

GPL Violation?

[Anonymous Coward]

Seeing as how the UK government is using Linux, wouldn't it be a GPL violation for them to attach additional conditions to the use of Linux in the UK?

Poland's Free Software Tax Proposal [in English]

[Compact Dick]

Here's an English edition of the story: Poland: It's official! Tax for Free Software [2000-11-20].