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Darling Taxes the Internet
- Thread starter robbieduncan
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What about people such as farmers? They can't exactly grow crops and raise livestock in the middle of London. They deserve decent internet options just as much as anyone else in a large city. And if a good broadband connection helps them expand their business online, make some extra money and keep your prices down, I think it's worth the 50p a month.
Like I said though, I come from the land where $30/month for an internet connection doesn't actually mean $30 so I don't have a whole lot of sympathy for you guys
What about people like me who have jobs that require us to work in the big city? Do we not deserve fresh country air and nice views as much as farmers? Perhaps they should be taxed so as we can have them?
Fresh air and views in London for 50p a month?
I'll gladly pay…
But seriously. This tax is 50p a month. It is hardly going to put folk like you into the poor house… is it?
If it helps to improve the UK's lagging broadband infrastructure, I have zero problems with this tax.
Why would you make such a ridiculous assumption?
There is life outside cities…
If people in the countryside want faster internet so badly why are they not taking the brunt of the fees? Is that far too logical for our government? Letting the people who will benefit from it foot most of the bill?
I don't know. It just all sounds a little backwards and strange to me.
I don't know. It just all sounds a little backwards and strange to me.
Why would you make such a ridiculous assumption?
There is life outside cities
Yes, and choosing to live there (and yes, being a farmer is a choice) involves weighing up all the factors. If high-speed broadband is important to you then living in a poorly served rural location is a bad choice.
I have no problem with people wanting faster broadband. But if you choose to live where there is none expecting others to pay for your bad decision is simply not on.
Why would you make such a ridiculous assumption?
There is life outside cities
My parents live in a small village in the middle of nowhere, we don't even have street lights or a shop. They do not want or need super-fast internet. Don't make assumptions that everyone is in a city
And if you continue to live in that small village… would you be content with less than average speeds?My parents live in a small village in the middle of nowhere, we don't even have street lights or a shop. They do not want or need super-fast internet. Don't make assumptions that everyone is in a city
Well would you?
And what about people who have lived there all their lives? Generations even? They have no right to modern tech? Just because some people think 50p a month is going to break their bank?
Edit:
I guess I just do not see the big deal in paying 50 paltry pennies per *gasp* month…
But it does seem as if people's mileages do indeed vary.
Not sure about the UK, but I lived in a rural area in the US and broadband was nearly twice as much than what it costs me in a decent sized city. I can't imagine what it would cost without the subsidies on connections to help fund that service. They pay $30 or $40 more than what they'd pay in the city, and people in the city pay an extra $2 or $3 (not sure what the exact fee is) to help subsidize it. So people in the rural areas pay a majority of the fees. FWIW, I don't remember exact costs as this was a couple years ago, but a 5 mbps connection was about $80. You could find twice that speed for half the price in a large city.
I wish the excess fees on my phone, internet, TV, etc, came out to £6 (~$9.70) a year. I think fees and taxes on my cell phone alone are around $10/month, plus whatever I pay in taxes on my internet, TV and landline.
People need to be encouraged to spread away from the cities. A big part of achieving this [in the future] could be through broadband and home working.
I don't think it's reasonable to just blame those out of reach of broadband for their choice of place to live. There may be a myriad of reasons why they live where they do. You also cannot expect a small village or a private business to foot the expensive bill of getting broadband to these areas. It's just not economical.
I don't want another tax, who does. This one though I do think has some merit, and is hardly likely to break any ones bank.
I don't think it's reasonable to just blame those out of reach of broadband for their choice of place to live. There may be a myriad of reasons why they live where they do. You also cannot expect a small village or a private business to foot the expensive bill of getting broadband to these areas. It's just not economical.
I don't want another tax, who does. This one though I do think has some merit, and is hardly likely to break any ones bank.
You do realize that we still pay plenty of taxes, right? This £6 per year thing is on top of what we're already paying.
Part of the annoyance here and what robbie and others may be so cheesed off about is that Londoners pay a great deal towards helping out the rest of the country. That's generally fine but after a while it starts to feel like you're being taken advantage of. Read here.
But this isn't a London-specific tax, is it?
If it was then I'd be up in arms as well.
Not just all London households… but even those despised rural households with a fixed line will have to cough up.
No, you're right. Consider my london-griping a tangent to the topic. I'm just grumpy about taxes and fees as a whole and since Londoners get a big frickin lot of that, I played that card perhaps incorrectly.
I certainly don't despise rural households. I just think this is a stupid tax.
Oh I'm with you on us Londoners getting shafted and milked.
The 2012 vanity project comes to mind
It is worth noting that rural areas already receive huge amounts of funding mostly paid for by our taxes in the form of the Rural Development Agencies.
In addition to that rural broadband has quite a bit of funding already (in addition to the RDA funding for it) in the form of a European Union grant under the EERP (and the UK is a net contributor to the EU so this was all funded via our taxes as well). The EERP funding provides £5.2 million to be split 50% for rural broadband and 50% for dairy farming (yes, £2.6 million is not really worth anything).
The UK RDPE which currently runs from 2007-2013 is already receiving £3.9 billion and that's just for rural development in England!
In addition to that rural broadband has quite a bit of funding already (in addition to the RDA funding for it) in the form of a European Union grant under the EERP (and the UK is a net contributor to the EU so this was all funded via our taxes as well). The EERP funding provides £5.2 million to be split 50% for rural broadband and 50% for dairy farming (yes, £2.6 million is not really worth anything).
The UK RDPE which currently runs from 2007-2013 is already receiving £3.9 billion and that's just for rural development in England!
Which, of course, we do pay a London specific tax for. I would point out we did not get a vote on having the 2012 felatio games or whatever it is (the logo is unclear). I would have happily had it anywhere else in the country, or better still in my first choice: Paris.
Oh I'm with you on us Londoners getting shafted and milked.
The 2012 vanity project comes to mind
WE PAY ENOUGH TAX
Honest to goodness. This is a country where the BASIC rate of tax is 31% and going up to 32% (Inc National Insurance which is just tax) in the recent budget - where 66% of our petrol is tax (and we're now at what, £1.05 per LITRE even though oil is cheap right now), we pay carbon emissions road tax (even though originally road tax was for upkeep of the roads), council tax, VAT on all our purchases, Broadband Tax, Capital Gains Tax, Inheritance Tax, 50% on Bankers Tax (Which by the way will simply force all bankers to move to the east - a move that was already happening prior to its introduction) Tax Tax Tax TAX TAX.
What do our MPs pay? Did you know MP's don't pay income tax? Are you aware they switch their main residences to save Capital Gains Tax and retain all profits? IS ANYONE listening to this?
How can the elistist morons in the previous posts actually JUSTIFY another tax? I simply cannot believe it. If the UK government invested in infastructure instead of borroing money in all those good years for the benefits/NHS system, there would be no need for this superflous tax.
If you add up all the taxation on purchases, income, gains and other indirect taxes (for example, even your investments and savings are taxed) it is estimated that every basic rate taxpayer pays 50% of their income to the UK government.
Only for Gordon Brown to borrow more money in the good and bad years. Got to feed all those teen moms. Which by the way, UK is also the best at...copulating and getting pregnant before 18.
GREAT briton? Yeh right.
Honest to goodness. This is a country where the BASIC rate of tax is 31% and going up to 32% (Inc National Insurance which is just tax) in the recent budget - where 66% of our petrol is tax (and we're now at what, £1.05 per LITRE even though oil is cheap right now), we pay carbon emissions road tax (even though originally road tax was for upkeep of the roads), council tax, VAT on all our purchases, Broadband Tax, Capital Gains Tax, Inheritance Tax, 50% on Bankers Tax (Which by the way will simply force all bankers to move to the east - a move that was already happening prior to its introduction) Tax Tax Tax TAX TAX.
What do our MPs pay? Did you know MP's don't pay income tax? Are you aware they switch their main residences to save Capital Gains Tax and retain all profits? IS ANYONE listening to this?
How can the elistist morons in the previous posts actually JUSTIFY another tax? I simply cannot believe it. If the UK government invested in infastructure instead of borroing money in all those good years for the benefits/NHS system, there would be no need for this superflous tax.
If you add up all the taxation on purchases, income, gains and other indirect taxes (for example, even your investments and savings are taxed) it is estimated that every basic rate taxpayer pays 50% of their income to the UK government.
Only for Gordon Brown to borrow more money in the good and bad years. Got to feed all those teen moms. Which by the way, UK is also the best at...copulating and getting pregnant before 18.
GREAT briton? Yeh right.
London gets quite a lot in return. The Thameslink upgrades, Crossrail, the new East London line and the Tube upgrades are all multi-billion pound infrastructure projects that basically only benefit London directly.
Believe me when I say I am no fan of MPs, but:
Yes, they actually do pay income tax… seems all that seething anger of yours has made you misinterpret the facts.
And as for your list of taxes. Show me a developed country anywhere without a similar list.
Actually, that'd be whinging the UK is best at.
Fair enough, you think Londoners pay too much in subsidising the rest of non-London. Robbie has the answer to that
It's a simple as that. Uproot your family, resign from your job in a recession, say goodbye to your friends, take a huge loss on the value of your property. But look on the bright side; you get to save £6 a year....
I lived in London for over twenty years and am angling to move back. However, I was never blind to the sheer amount of capital that London hoovers up out of the British economy to the detriment of the rest of the country. Swings and roundabouts. If you still subscribe to the concept of society, be prepared to nurture it a little rather than your own narrow self-interests.
Beautiful graphic, perfectly sums it up, I love that one of the big reasons for the tax was to get rural areas up to speed, I can guarantee that I will never see any speed upgrade in my rural home (4mbps max), only big towns and cities will get the speed boost, rural people always get shafted, it's because the city folk are jealous of the view