Well, government just has to get its taxes somewhere. So you either tax the money the moment it's earned (income tax), or the moment it's spent (VAT, special taxes on gasoline, alcohol, tabacco...).
Income taxes can easily be enforced locally, but people don't like to have their hard-earned money taken away before they even saw it.
VAT and their likes _could_ be enforced locally, i.e. the place where the money is actually spent. So if I buy a TV in Luxembourg, I pay 15% VAT to the the local government, and if I buy it in Sweden, I pay 25% VAT. But this difference in taxes would create a shift of consumption towards the low-VAT countries, so the idea of locally enforcing VAT was frowned upon by several governments (usually in countries with a high VAT). Thus it never happend. VATs are due where you live, not where you spend your money.
"Tax-free shopping" is possible because of this. As a German citizen, you can buy that camera in Japan, get back that 5% VAT you payed, return to Germany, and pay the 16% VAT at the German customs . (Nobody does it and everyone claims that they had the camera before they left the country...)
Extending this idea of "pay VAT where you live" to the internet is only logical, as not doing so would open a loophole, and shops would go online just to save the VAT. Also, requesting that the individual customer pays his taxes (as it's done with tax-free shopping) somehow doesn't work as advertised, so goind after the businesses and requesting them to collect the taxes makes sense, in a way:).
Personally, I prefer VATs over income taxes, because _I_ can decide the time my money is taxed. If I want to save money, I can earn interest on my full income and I can pay the taxes the day I buy that new computer/gadget/house/whatever.
(On a sidenote, in Europe you usually see the prices printed including VAT, so nobody notices how much VAT they pay. You'd have to read the fine print on your receipt.)
Governments being what they are, obviously like to tax both ways instead of deciding on one sort of taxes. But I disgress...
Hi,
those who want to understand more of the Japanese text should try Rikai's free Japanese->English web reading tool. It fetches the Japanese page and inserts DHTML to provide information about the words, that simply pops up when the mouse hovers over an unknown word.
To read the page mentioned in the article simply cut-and-paste the URL.
As anyone can find out with a google "uncle sam" search, the text of the treaty is available online including some explanations. Quotes from the explanation:
"The Treaty permits each side to have one limited ABM system to protect its capital and another to protect an ICBM launch area. The two sites defended must be at least 1,300 kilometers apart, to prevent the creation of any effective regional defense zone or the beginnings of a nationwide system."
"The most recent Treaty review was completed in October 1993. Following that review, numerous sessions of the Standing Consultative Commission have been held to work out Treaty succession -- to "multilateralize" the Treaty -- as a result of the break-up of the Soviet Union and to negotiate a demarcation between ABM and non-ABM systems."
Funny you mention Windows Sound Problems. After re-installing Windows 98 and the newest drivers I did not encounter any sound-related problems. And the only reason I still have Windows on my disk is games:-).
I chose the Creative Sound Blaster PCI 64. It's cheap, does not use up many ressources and is well supported with the newer (2.2.x) Kernels. The ALSA Project also supports the chip on the card (Ensoniq ES1370 or ES1371) but I never used the ALSA drivers.
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Well, government just has to get its taxes somewhere. So you either tax the money the moment it's earned (income tax), or the moment it's spent (VAT, special taxes on gasoline, alcohol, tabacco...).
:).
Income taxes can easily be enforced locally, but people don't like to have their hard-earned money taken away before they even saw it.
VAT and their likes _could_ be enforced locally, i.e. the place where the money is actually spent. So if I buy a TV in Luxembourg, I pay 15% VAT to the the local government, and if I buy it in Sweden, I pay 25% VAT. But this difference in taxes would create a shift of consumption towards the low-VAT countries, so the idea of locally enforcing VAT was frowned upon by several governments (usually in countries with a high VAT). Thus it never happend. VATs are due where you live, not where you spend your money.
"Tax-free shopping" is possible because of this. As a German citizen, you can buy that camera in Japan, get back that 5% VAT you payed, return to Germany, and pay the 16% VAT at the German customs . (Nobody does it and everyone claims that they had the camera before they left the country...)
Extending this idea of "pay VAT where you live" to the internet is only logical, as not doing so would open a loophole, and shops would go online just to save the VAT. Also, requesting that the individual customer pays his taxes (as it's done with tax-free shopping) somehow doesn't work as advertised, so goind after the businesses and requesting them to collect the taxes makes sense, in a way
Personally, I prefer VATs over income taxes, because _I_ can decide the time my money is taxed. If I want to save money, I can earn interest on my full income and I can pay the taxes the day I buy that new computer/gadget/house/whatever.
(On a sidenote, in Europe you usually see the prices printed including VAT, so nobody notices how much VAT they pay. You'd have to read the fine print on your receipt.)
Governments being what they are, obviously like to tax both ways instead of deciding on one sort of taxes. But I disgress...
To read the page mentioned in the article simply cut-and-paste the URL.
An english page seems to be available (link is in the upper right corner).
When you've finished rambling, go over here and read what Sun really has to say about the Blackdown team effort.
Quotes from the explanation:
"The Treaty permits each side to have one limited ABM system to protect its capital and another to protect an ICBM launch area. The two sites defended must be at least 1,300 kilometers apart, to prevent the creation of any effective regional defense zone or the beginnings of a nationwide system."
"The most recent Treaty review was completed in October 1993. Following that review, numerous sessions of the Standing Consultative Commission have been held to work out Treaty succession -- to "multilateralize" the Treaty -- as a result of the break-up of the Soviet Union and to negotiate a demarcation between ABM and non-ABM systems."
Funny you mention Windows Sound Problems. After re-installing Windows 98 and the newest drivers I did not encounter any sound-related problems. :-).
And the only reason I still have Windows on my disk is games
I chose the Creative Sound Blaster PCI 64. It's cheap, does not use up many ressources and is well supported with the newer (2.2.x) Kernels.
The ALSA Project also supports the chip on the card (Ensoniq ES1370 or ES1371) but I never used the ALSA drivers.