British Government Considers Tax on Computers

Jumbo Jimbo writes "A story in the UK Times talks about the UK government's proposals to tax personal computers, as a replacement for the television license currently paid by every household with a TV. These are proposals and aren't intended for a few years yet, but due to the growth of computer ownership, this would probably amount to a tax on nearly everybody. Hope it's not per computer, or those people with a pile of old 286s in the shed could be in for a shock."

Comments

Re:Hmmm

[Anonymous Coward]

I know its better than old news, but are you aware that this is just one of many possible schemes, and that none of them are due to take effect before 2017.

That's probably why the OP says British Government considers these schemes, and they aren't intended for a few years yet.

Re:Hmmm

[onion2k]

I'd wager a large sum that there'll be no new tax per se, but the television license will be changed to say you need one if you have "any device capable of receiving programme broadcasts". By 2017 that'll include your brain. Maybe.

"Let me tell you how it will be"

[dosius]

"Here's one for you, nineteen for me"

</GEORGEHARRISON>

Moll.

Go for it!

[pandrijeczko]

Provided that the money raised goes into an education initiative to give Joe Bloke some government sponsored training into how to use his computer properly, I don't see a problem.

Even go a stage further and insist every household has to have someone with a PC use accreditation to be able to connect to the Internet.

As a computer geek, I'm sick and tired of having to endlessly fix the crappy Windows PCs of friends and relatives, I'm totally bored with spending time keeping my machines (both Linux and Windows ones) updated only to still have my Internet connection slow to a crawl every time the latest Windows worm hits and maybe the government can "sponsor" non-commercial citizens' web-sites so that I'm not constantly bombarded by banner ads and pop-ups every time I load a page in my browser.

UK Gov. can even go a stage further and send out a free Knoppix CD with each PC Tax registration form :-)

Re:Not a bad idea.

[Tanami]

(obviously they shouldn't bother with any of this stuff in the North or the countryside)

Yes, I personally can't wait to pay extra on my next computer purchase so you lot can sit by the Thames sipping shandy and downloading Olympic Bid screensavers over your free WLAN :p

Concerned, of Aberdeen

Re:Fair point actually

[Hognoxious]

some wondeful-but-yet-to-be-conceived-of OS that gets written in 2009

You mean the hurd?

Tax on Stupidity?

[NoSuchGuy]

Why is there no tax on stupidity?

You have options!

[Asprin]

There's no reason why you hard-working UK citizens should have to put up with this crap. Unplug your telly/pc/whatever, drive it right on down to the Thames or whatever your nearest waterhole is and TOSS IT IN!

Let "the man" in parliament know you ain't gonna pay no taxes what you ain't got been done voted fer yet. No more.

Hey, it worked for us!

Sincerely,
USA

Re:Nope, you are wrong.

[Seehund]

(a) that gas conveyed by him is escaping, or may escape, in any premises;

"I'm conveying gas. May I use your bathroom? Oh, step aside, of course I may!"

Re:Nope, you are wrong.

[senatorpjt]

But, if you're not doing anything wrong, you have nothing to hide!

The British PC Party

[srobert]

Let me give our British cousins some American advice. Don't worry you don't have to pay the tax on these. Here's what you do. Get dressed up as Indians (or native Americans if you prefer) and sneek into the harbor and get on the ships where these machines are being shipped into Great Britain. Then dump them all overboard into the harbor.
We had something like this with the British government a few hundred years ago. Since the rebellion we haven't had to pay one penny in taxes (to the British government).