Taxes Archive

  • Would America support a national broadband tax or is that too ‘big government’?

    Would America support a national broadband tax or is that too ‘big government’?

    Posted on May 20, 2010 | No Comments
    The Cousins were mulling over a broadband tax, but the new Government has put a stop to that. (Now they're considering using some of the BBC license fee to fund broadband development.) The idea was to charge people 50p (around $0.70) per month to fund the expansion of broadband into rural areas. Would such a move work here in the U.S.? Would you be willing to pay, say, $1 per month, paying toward some sort of Broadband Fund, to ensure that people in the middle of nowhere have access to reliable broadband? What's more American than wanting to help your neighbors?

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  • Paying the Amazon tax

    Paying the Amazon tax

    Posted on March 9, 2010 | No Comments
    Yay, taxes! It looks like more and more states are considering forcing the likes of Amazon and Overstock.com (note: I've never bought anything from there!) to pay taxes. This is good and bad: it helps, however little, state governments balance the books, but it also raises the cost of "doing business" in those states. It also makes it more expensive to buy things online. Boo!

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  • Let’s talk about: the broadband tax in the UK

    Let’s talk about: the broadband tax in the UK

    Posted on December 9, 2009 | No Comments
    They're trying to balance the books over in the UK, and the Chancellor of the Exchequer has proposed a tax that may interest you. The proposed budget for the next year includes a broadband tax! The name is a bit misleading in that it's not a tax on broadband, but a tax on telephone landlines (POTS), the money of which will go to making sure people in rural areas have sufficient access to broadband.

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