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Ask Slashdot: Should the US Government Tax Email?

Posted by Cliff on from the more-wacky-government-proposals dept.

Contramac writes "I've been hearing lately that the government wants to place a tax on outgoing email because more people are writing email than postal mail. Should this or other taxes on the Internet take place? Should the Internet community enter politics and make a stand of how they feel? I'm sure there is or have been some legislature about this topic somewhere. Myself and maybe other people out there want to find out what others opinions about this matter are. What is yours? " This is something we are going to have to face sooner or later, but I don't see how the US Government can justify it. A large portion of this infrastructure is based on commercial resources, not governmental ones.

2 of 289 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Rumors (false ones, at that) by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5
    A dozen or so level headed types have since posted to the effect that is a hoax. I propose then that we talk about about something very real that has happened within the last week that involves the .gov, the USPS and your computer.

    Stamps.com and estamp.com were approved for liceenses to create postage stamp on the 9th of August. Cnn reported the news today and I went to look at the sites and the software/service for sale. Briefly if you haven't heard of it, it allows you to print up your own postage for snail mail. To use this system to print your own stamps requires that you download a license from the USPS. There was no mention of any operating systems besides those sold by Microsoft as eligible to run this software. Not Linux, not Mac, not Solaris, not OS/2, nor anyone else. I would have thought some lawyer at the USPS would have raised the alarm about the exclusivity of this deal as it denies equality of access to government services.

    The irony of the government licensed monopoly being allowed to do an exclusive deal on an essential service like postage with a ('til now?) purely private monopoly, while the government's lawyers waiting for a verdict in their case against MS was apparently all lost on CNN and the USPS. It made me sick in that old familiar way.

    Looks like USPS will save itself some money by using Linux to deliver the mail, but cheerfully helps enforce the MS tax on all small business owners. Nice.

  2. Hoax? by Jeff+Monks · · Score: 5
    If this question comes about as a result of the e-mail that everyone is forwarding around, I'm pretty sure it's a hoax. The EFF has an alert about it here.

    The USPS has neither the resources nor the jurisdiction to do this; it's just another in a long string of chain e-mails that morons forward around without knowing anything about it.

    In general, Internet taxes won't work. There are only two real models that could work: charge the ISPs a tax, which they would pass on to subscribers (I imagine AOL and others would fight this tooth and nail), or a national sales tax on purchases made over the Internet. Taxing things such as e-mail or bandwidth would be impractical.

    That won't stop legislators from trying, though...