Congress is about to decide to Tax the Internet. Yes you heard me. - Polidicks

[QUOTE][url]http://news.msn.com/science-technology/congress-is-about-to-decide-whether-to-tax-your-internet-1[/url][/QUOTE] Well get ready to pay the Government for the internet which they do not own and did not create. Well not according to Putin in his "CIA theory of the internet". Great. Edit - maybe i should've read the article completely

I don't know what's going to come of this, but we'll either look back on these years as years of success and protest, or years of failure and regret.

this is fucking stupid they shouldn't even have to make a conscious effort to decide whether or not to tax the internet, it doesn't make sense other than moneylol

After glancing at the article it looks like what's happening is they're trying to renew a ban on taxing the internet but some of the senators are trying to attach a rider that makes online sales tax a requirement.

-snip i'm a fucking dumbass-

Any sane internet service should move out of the US. The US clearly is not capable of handling it with the dignity it is entitled to.

Thank god that I'm safe

Only rich people should have to pay tax on the internet.

I can tell not many people are reading the article. They're basically just going to extend the ban on taxing the internet, while some lawmakers have attached a law to that making online sales tax mandatory. [quote]In July, the House passed by voice vote a bill that would have banned Internet access taxes forever. In addition, the Permanent Internet Freedom Act would end the access taxes that are collected in seven states—Hawaii, New Mexico, North Dakota, Ohio, South Dakota, Texas, and Wisconsin. Those states already had begun collecting taxes prior to the 1998 law, which grandfathered them into its language. The measure briefly looked like it had a chance to sail through the Senate and land on the president's desk before the end of the year, which would have represented one of only a handful of substantive bills to pass an otherwise do-nothing Congress this year. But just hours after the House passed its bill, a group of bipartisan senators, led by Sens. Dick Durbin of Illinois and Mike Enzi of Wyoming, introduced a new bill combining a 10-year tax ban with a more controversial effort that would boost the authority of states to tax online purchases from retailers like Amazon and eBay. It would also keep the bans in those seven grandfathered states intact.[/quote]

[QUOTE=Explosions;46007410]Only rich people should have to pay tax on the internet.[/QUOTE] or how about no one pays an internet tax just because they're successful because seriously that's fucking stupid and easily going to turn into the other direction I know a lot of rich people are assholes but I really don't get the disrespect why should rich people pay taxes that shouldn't be there in the first place? this isn't saying anything political however! I agree that if the poor pay 5%, the rich pay 5% and thus they pay more in a balanced way. unless you aren't hating on rich people? I'm really lost. Why should anyone have an internet tax? (of course that isn't what the article is saying it seems but I mean just hypothetically).

Lol RIP American internet businesses if this actually happens. Maybe google HQ will become a strip mall.

Honestly I think online sales tax should still apply. It was a fun run of saying no tax because we aren't in your state but as great as that was taxes should still exist.

If this actually happens then you can come to my place and buy your shit 'internet-sales-tax' free.

Woopty fucking doo. A sales tax when you pay your monthly Internet bill. We've been paying the 10% GST on Internet bills ever since GST has been a thing here. But maybe Americans should instead look at why they have to legislate taxes for every specific thing rather than just have a blanket tax (potentially excluding health related items and stuff like milk, bread or produce etc) and why they even have sales taxes instead of value-added taxes. Granted, that's if the ban isn't renewed but even if it isn't it won't be the end of the world.

So basically half the problem comes from the fact that even though we are shafted like the internet is an inflexable utility, the fact that its still not a legal utility requires peacemeal bills to treat it like a utility What is the argument against regulating it like a utility again? Seems like we as consumers get the protections that entails while the whole backbone of the internet won't rely on lobhiests in bed with congress, all we would be left with is the FCC but hey I'll deal with a beureo rather than asinine morons on the hill [editline]17th September 2014[/editline] [QUOTE=Antdawg;46007467]Woopty fucking doo. A sales tax when you pay your monthly Internet bill. We've been paying the 10% GST on Internet bills ever since GST has been a thing here. But maybe Americans should instead look at why they have to legislate taxes for every specific thing rather than just have a blanket tax (potentially excluding health related items and stuff like milk, bread or produce etc) and why they even have sales taxes instead of value-added taxes. Granted, that's if the ban isn't renewed but even if it isn't it won't be the end of the world.[/QUOTE] There's few ways our tax system could get worse, copying the Australian tax code is one of them

[QUOTE=DrDevil;46007406]Any sane internet service should move out of the US. The US clearly is not capable of handling it with the dignity it is entitled to.[/QUOTE] To be honest, it seems to be about sales tax from online sales. Which is completely normal in the EU. But that's because there's national VAT levels which do work as more traditional sales tax. [QUOTE=J!NX;46007436]or how about no one pays an internet tax just because they're successful because seriously that's fucking stupid and easily going to turn into the other direction I know a lot of rich people are assholes but I really don't get the disrespect why should rich people pay taxes that shouldn't be there in the first place? this isn't saying anything political however! I agree that if the poor pay 5%, the rich pay 5% and thus they pay more in a balanced way. unless you aren't hating on rich people? I'm really lost. Why should anyone have an internet tax? (of course that isn't what the article is saying it seems but I mean just hypothetically).[/QUOTE] It's relative. Mind you that 5% of the wage of someone living on minimum wage will generally have a much more significant impact than 5% of someone who makes average wage, let alone someone who makes way over the average.

[QUOTE=bdd458;46007429]I can tell not many people are reading the article. They're basically just going to extend the ban on taxing the internet, while some lawmakers have attached a law to that making online sales tax mandatory.[/QUOTE] No-one reads anymore :v:

Why is no one reading the article.

Wow all of you seem very well informed.

Dick Durbin is trying to extend the tax ban for 10 years except for the 7 states which already tax internet purchases.

[QUOTE=J!NX;46007436]or how about no one pays an internet tax just because they're successful because seriously that's fucking stupid and easily going to turn into the other direction I know a lot of rich people are assholes but I really don't get the disrespect why should rich people pay taxes that shouldn't be there in the first place? this isn't saying anything political however! I agree that if the poor pay 5%, the rich pay 5% and thus they pay more in a balanced way. unless you aren't hating on rich people? I'm really lost. Why should anyone have an internet tax? (of course that isn't what the article is saying it seems but I mean just hypothetically).[/QUOTE] i'm pretty sure he was just making a joke

[QUOTE=FurrehFaux;46007609]i'm pretty sure he was just making a joke[/QUOTE] I guess I was confused. Still :v: some people believe that. But I guess it'd be far more obvious if he did.

[QUOTE=Sableye;46007521]So basically half the problem comes from the fact that even though we are shafted like the internet is an inflexable utility, the fact that its still not a legal utility requires peacemeal bills to treat it like a utility What is the argument against regulating it like a utility again? Seems like we as consumers get the protections that entails while the whole backbone of the internet won't rely on lobhiests in bed with congress, all we would be left with is the FCC but hey I'll deal with a beureo rather than asinine morons on the hill [editline]17th September 2014[/editline] There's few ways our tax system could get worse, copying the Australian tax code is one of them[/QUOTE] So you're telling me that letting states set their own sales taxes and on whatever they want or not want to tax so they can confuse the fuck out of business and increase compliance costs, plus being sales taxes which create more compliance costs as to determining who is the final seller and so who should charge the sales tax rather than everyone charging it and offsetting their tax paid with their tax collected is somehow better than Australian taxation laws? If you're in Australia and you want to determine how much GST you pay as part of a purchase, divide the advertised sale price by 11. If you're in America you don't actually get to know how much sales tax you pay until the sale actually occurs because businesses are allowed to advertise the pre-tax price (that's illegal here), even then you would have to think wtf for a while if you're coming from interstate as you determine how this state handles sales tax. Yep, I'd definitely rather have that inefficient American system. I could also go into how the US doesn't have tax-free thresholds as the lowest marginal tax bracket for personal income tax and how businesses are allowed to use LIFO inventory management to report lower gross profit and therefore lower tax liability (illegal in pretty much the rest of the developed world), but that's going off-topic.

Tbh it doesn't really make sense to me that buying at best buy requires tax yet online doesn't

[QUOTE=Tuskin;46007552]No-one reads anymore :v:[/QUOTE] especially since the OP didn't even post any of the article.

[QUOTE=Tuskin;46007552]No-one reads anymore :v:[/QUOTE] Usually I just read a few posts down and wait for the sensible people to point out whether people are reading it or not

WHOA WHOA WHOA Isn't this unconstitutional? I don't want shrively old men in suits deciding how much extra I pay for my internet. It's bad enough we overpay for ISP's here.

Since the OP didn't post any part of the article and is confusing everyone, here's a summary of what's going to happen. Congress is just going to vote on whether or not to extend the [URL="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_Tax_Freedom_Act"]Tax Freedom Act.[/URL] Ever since the Clinton administration passed the bill, it's been extended three times by the Bush administration and there's no reason for it not to be extended again this time. Currently in the works right now is an amendment to the TFA that will make the bill permanent, so the internet won't get riled up every few years.

leave the internet alone for fucks sake

[QUOTE=FurrehFaux;46007897]Since the OP didn't post any part of the article and is confusing everyone, here's a summary of what's going to happen. Congress is just going to vote on whether or not to extend the [URL="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_Tax_Freedom_Act"]Tax Freedom Act.[/URL] Ever since the Clinton administration passed the bill, it's been extended three times by the Bush administration and there's no reason for it not to be extended again this time. Currently in the works right now is an amendment to the TFA that will make the bill permanent, so the internet won't get riled up every few years.[/QUOTE] thanks for clearing that up