Slashdot Mirror
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."
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.
Athletic Scholarships to universities make as much sense as academic scholarships to sports teams.
There is so much conjecture and guess work in this, that I don't know where to start. The BBC has only just had its charter renewed for the next 10 years, so imagining what will happen after that is total guess work.
unless they'll levy the tax on components as well they can hardly prevent me from building my own, it'd be difficult to implement on eBay as well.
I have been a user for about 10 years. This ends Feb 2014. The site's been ruined. I'm off. Dice, FU
Not mooted until 2017 currently. The playing field will be a lot different by then, so it may be moved forward.
I would expect the fees would be a lot lower than the £120 TV licence currently in place. PC users would not be accessing BBC content 24/7.
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The actual article is quite short and brief, but I condense it here to attempt to avoid questions answered in the article.
... suggested "either a compulsory levy on all households or even on ownership of PCs as well as TVs". It said that technology might render it difficult to collect and enforce the fee.
... ... ... /edited
"THE BBC licence fee should be replaced by a tax on the ownership of a personal computer instead of a television, ministers said yesterday.
Tessa Jowell told the BBC that the licence fee would be retained for at least another ten years until 2017 in return for abolishing the Board of Governors. But the Culture Secretary conceded that technological advances would mean that a fee based on "television ownership could become redundant".
More than six million households have access to high-speed broadband connections and the BBC has begun experimenting with broadcasting video clips over the internet.
A legal loophole highlighted by the communications regulator Ofcom means that viewers could watch television and listen to radio over the internet and mobile devices free, potentially costing the BBC millions of pounds in licence fees.
The Dept for Culture, Media and Sport's Green Paper setting out the BBC's long-term future
Officially, the Government says that changes would not be needed until 2017,... but insiders said that the department would act if internet viewing took off.
Over the next few years, internet broadcasting is set to increase rapidly... The BBC already broadcasts all its radio stations over the internet, and [some TV too]
Ofcom predicts that more than half of Britain's households will be watching television over the internet by 2012. Other emerging technologies will allow television to be broadcast direct to mobile phones. [O2 aiming to test in 2007]
Once upon a time in Europe, there used to be a tax on windows (they were considered a sign of wealth)
Absolute rubbish! You just made this up. I live in the the UK and I don't know anyone who gets 'a warm fuzzy feeling' due to increased taxes.
Since I suspect you pulled this out or your arse perhaps you could link to some scientific study to backup your theory. If not then your theory is no more valid than mine. Mine being that people in the UK do not like tax increases.
only that it's about to start in 2007 in Germany.
See here.
I thought this was kind of covered already
I don't know quite how they'd do this? I suppose they could tax TV cards at sale, or maybe they can detect the use of the receiving equipment as they currently do. That said maybe they can pick up any CRT display device??
"those people with a pile of old 286s in the shed could be in for a shock."
...and anyone with a calculator, washing machine, mobile phone...
Athletic Scholarships to universities make as much sense as academic scholarships to sports teams.
It would be like a mandatory Slashdot Premium, you pay a tax to keep BBC Online and BBC News Online an ad-free website. Given my utter hatred for advertising, I have little problem with this, but I just hope here in Ireland they don't transfer THEIR current system to the internet...
See, in Ireland the state sponsored broadcaster, RTÉ, is supported by funds from TV taxes, like the BBC. Unlike the BBC, they also show loads of advertising. You get the worst of both systems in Ireland.
Yup...
The point is that the NHS was very badly underfunded in the past, so increased funding was clearly needed. British people want free health care: the National Insurance premiums are based on your ability to pay and available to everyone.
Nobody in the UK *wants* to pay more taxes. However, people have made the logical connection between more funding and better services, so are prepared to pay higer taxes if it brings them a benefit. This happened back in 1997 when the right-wing Conservatives were thrown out after decades of heading towards a more US style small government, free market approach to government.
Our taxes are still lower than much of Europe. On a £30,000 salary, you could expect to pay £5300 tax and £2800 National Insurance (health and state pension contributions)
There is something of a warm and fuzzy feeling about the NHS - it was founded in the socialist reforms after world war 2 that aimed to create a more equitable society out of the incredibly poor state the war left the UK in.
The NHS is good enough for most purposes: waiting times are down, staff recruitment is up. I went into my local hospital with a broken arm on a busy afternoon, was seen straight away and was on my way home within a couple of hours. The state of dental care is another matter, of course, and so is the whole MRSA/nursing staff not knowing how to wash their hands thing. I don't know many people with private health insurance.
No you're not. Why don't you try READING about it or SPEAKING to the f'ing license company. Stop spreading that stupid f'ing urban myth.
Please let me show you...
"If you use a TV or any other device to receive or record TV programmes (for example, a VCR, set-top box, DVD recorder or PC with a broadcast card) - you need a TV Licence."
http://www.tvlicensing.co.uk/information/
It's HOW you use it, not what your equipment can be used FOR.
I don't have a TV tuned it or aerialed up at ALL, so called up the TV license people, told them that and they promptly said I didn't have to pay and sent me a form to get a refund of what I'd already paid for that month.
No one has yet mentioned the greatest jewel of the BBC: BBC radio. Whether you are considering Radio 4 (news), Radio 3 (culture), or the World Service (international), these are all funded as part of the TV license fee.
Also, I think that it is important that the BBC (especially radio) remains free to access. Personally, I'd like to see the BBC adopt a model such as Mandrake use, i.e. people who like it pay, in order to keep it free for everyone to use.
Think about it... if they charge you a "copyright tax" of 40 Euros per computer, then you can download stuff via p2p to your heart's content... I'd willingly pay a one off levy on purchase to tell the minions of the **AA to P off... and gladly make sure my receipt for this levy was kept very, very safe...
Ah but unfortunately it doesn't work that way. That would still be a copyright infringement and remain illegal under the current proposal. Think about it: if the 40 euro covered whatever copyright infringement, you could also put "pirated" copies of Windows, Office, or any other commercial software on it legally.
Also many computers (think businesses) are never ever used for copyright infringement, but they would have to pay the tax too.
I'll forego the option of moderating this discussion to tell anyone interested that Sweden is contemplating a very similar change.
The TV-license is going to transform into a "media license" and everyone with access to a computer, TV or other "media"-item is going to have to pay for the use of it.
Personally I'm not a fan of TV-licensing, and this is even less titillating to me.
I enjoy large posteriors and I cannot prevaricate.
The TV licencing goons' inability to accept this is, of course, another matter. But then, they can't seem to get it into their brains that some people can manage to live without a TV at all, so subtlities like whether a TV is installed are clearly beyond them.
tosh! Have a look at:9 95004 5_en_4.htm
http://www.hmso.gov.uk/acts/acts1995/Ukpga_1
Gas Act 1995
22.--(1) Where a public gas transporter has reasonable cause to suspect--
(a) that gas conveyed by him is escaping, or may escape, in any premises; or
(b) that gas so conveyed which has escaped has entered, or may enter, any premises,
any officer authorised by the transporter may, on production of some duly authenticated document showing his authority, enter the premises
Brocklesby Park Cricket Club
The BBC is one of the more widely used public services in the UK.
Try the world! The BBC's TV and Radio programs are widely watched and listened to around the world by alot more people than use the service in the UK. I don't think people in the UK are quite aware of just how big an international PR medium the BBC is. Other countries can only dream of having a state controlled TV network that is watched by this kind of an international audience. Furthermore, at least in so far as news reporting is concerned, the BBC commands alot more respect internationally than the big US networks do (Althoug to be fair there is a number of notable exceptions to this rule among the latter but it is depressingly small) recent reporting scandals not withstanding.
Only to idiots, are orders laws.
-- Henning von Tresckow
I always thought the law was "If you have equipment capable of receiving..."
But the BBC says this:
"If you use a TV or any other device to receive or record TV programmes (for example, a VCR, set-top box, DVD recorder or PC with a broadcast card) - you need a TV Licence. You are required by law to have one."
Looks like using one for a DVD player, or your old Commadore 64 would be OK without a licence, the key is "If you use", not "If you have".
You DO need one "If you use" a tuner card in your PC to watch TV, but not if you use it for digitising home movies.
Offtopic, Inflammatory, Inappropriate, Illegal, or Offensive comments might be moderated up.
I live in Belgium too.
It's more like a fine you're paying whether or not you downloaded illegal content. Basically, in Belgium everyone who owns a pc is consider a criminal. In return for the tax, you have the right to make home copies of your own collection. Only problem is: we already have that right to make our own copies.
Moreover, we in Belgium are already paying a tax to compensate pirate losses: the price of every storage medium (going from HD's tot DVD's) has a tax on it besides VAT. The money goes to a company called Uradex which redistributes it under artists. In reality: they make millions of euro's but at the moment the memberartists only have seen 300.000 euros. And it's not the downloaders who pay the most: it's companies who do a lot of data storage without downloading one single byte of illegal content that are paying Uradex. Simply put: It's a scam.
Besides, today we learned that SABAM is being sued for not paying up fast enough. The justice department even suspects fraud and corruption. I guess they put the money on a bankaccount or invest it so they make outreagous profit from the interest.
In total: Belgian taxation on computers includes in the véry near future:
- VAT (21%)
- PC Tax
- Recycling tax (yes, we pay because obsolete computers are damaging to the environment)
- Storage tax (taxes on storage media)
Don't get me started on all the other taxes (social security, environmental 'green' taxes,...) we have to pay. When the liberals (center-right) took over five years ago they promised to cut taxes down...
Basically we're being robbed by our own government.
The TV licencing people work by writing to all the residential addresses in the country that don't have licences telling them that they'll be in big trouble if they have a TV and no licence. They will usually follow that up by sending an inspector round. There's no obligation to let the inspector in, but if you do so voluntarily and the inspector is satisfied you don't have a telly, the threatening letters will stop, but only for a few years.
If you don't let the inspector in, they can only gain entry to search for an illegal telly by providing evidence that you have one to a court - typically this will be done by using TV detector equipment, or observing the glow of a TV through the curtains from the street at night. Not sure if they use that one so much today seeing as it could be a PC monitor and not a telly.
However, if you don't have a telly and you don't let the inspectors in to have a look around, they will keep pestering you with letters and doorstepping until you give in. From the TV licencing people's PoV it makes sense as only something like 1% of the population genuinely don't own a TV, but it does royally piss off the people who don't and keep getting pestered.
A few years ago they ran an advertising campaign where they displayed randomly selected street signs from around the country with the slogan "we know that X households in this street are watching television illegally" but they had to drop it after complaints from the residents in those streets who felt they were being unfairly accused.
TV Licensing cannot enter your place without a warrant. If they can see or hear a TV, though, you're basically busted. If you ask them if they have a warrant they'll leave, and sometimes they'll come back with a warrant.
I have a TV license, but it's good to make them jump through loops when their records get cocked up.
Where are you getting this information from?
TV licencing told me on the phone a few years ago that I could use my TV to watch videos without a licence. They added a comment to that effect in their database. So long as you de-tune from all the broadcast channels and unplug the aerial, you're fine. Straight from the horses mouth.