Japan Considers Taxing of WiFi

DoktorTomoe writes "According to an article at Asia Pacific Media Network, Japan plans to introduce a fee for using WLan. The changes necessary for such taxation could be made as early as 2005. "

Well...

[Blue-Footed Boobie]

I hope this doesn't give the US Governement any wild ideas...

Taxing Wi-FI

[wizatcomputer]

How can someone but a tax on using Wi-Fi? That would be like putting a tax on the cordless phones, or remote car locks. Stupid, and a cheep way to get some money for the government!

Re:Human Life Tax

[marnargulus]

This might be considered if all of a sudden we have huge populations using much of the air available, and making it possible that others can't breathe. From what I see, they are just applying a tax on something that uses the limited spectrum. When all of the space for the spectrum gets filled, who do you think the people will be pissed at for not managing that? The government. They are just trying to help manage it before it gets out of hand. (Especially in a space conservative place like japan. Image in everyone decided to use their equipment at the same time on the same frequency. That would be quite a jam)

Re:Tax everything

[Tackhead]

> Isn't this a bit moronic? Find things that make economies more efficient and help spread information and tax them? It's not like wireless costs the government anything to allow.

You forget the attitude of the bureaucrat towards anything that "makes an economy more efficient" or "helps spread information". First, a flush of raw trembling fear. Then apply The Rules:

If it doesn't move, tax it.
If it moves, regulate it until it stops moving.
Then tax it.

Remember, anything not nailed down belongs to the government. Anything that can be pried loose by a legislative body is not nailed down.

Re:Well...

[lightknight]

It's not that we do not have a monopoly on stupid ideas, it's that we export them (so other countries can enjoy the same warm feeling *cough* shaft *cough* of these ideas).

I guess I wish that the (congressional) debate would move back from "what can we tax?" to "why do we tax?". These days it's less about "Life, Liberty, and Property" than a free-for-all "Everything must go, get your legislation for you and your special interest".

It's kind of funny what the founding fathers thought of public service: they hated it. The did it, because it needed to be done, but they looked upon the government the same way Bill Gates looks at the DoJ. Now, politicians and beauracrats are treated with great fanfare, as though they are doing something truly great, as opposed to the truth: essentially, they got their position by winning a popularity contest.

On a side note, does anyone remeber the article a while back, on some obscure law in Florida, whereby they could tax LANs?

Maybe the Japanese government is just grasping at

[foidulus]

straws.
Japan's national debt rivals that of the US, despite the fact that Japan's GDP is only 40% of the US, though a mitigating factor is that Japan's debt is almost all domestically held, whereas the US's is held by a large number of foriegn countries, including ironically Japan. Japan's debt is 140% of their GDP, the highest in the industrialized world. The reason? Taxes are relatively low in Japan to begin with, but Japan insisted on spending it's way out of a recession by so many useless public works projects(which is why I cringe every time the US highway bill is passed), and failed miserably. It was absolutely amazing to me when I was there, I saw construction crews tear apart a perfect road to pave it again. I was dumbfounded(esp. since I come from PA, where they won't fix the roads even when they need it) And with the deepening pension scandal, where politicians didn't pay into Japan's pension system for many years, expect many more wacky taxes to come out of Japan..

Yes!

[nicodietrich]

This gives me a good feeling for the night! Maybe interesting to think about!

Re:Tax everything

[Carik]

Sorry... broadband is not a necessity. When everyone in the country (I could say world, but let's limit this to whatever country you live in -- that's enough of an issue for the moment) has adequate housing, food, medical care, etc, THEN broadband becomes a necessity. While there are still people on the streets, people who can't get medical care for whatever reason, people who are starving to death -- and don't pretend it doesn't happen; there's not a country in the world with 100% housing/food/med. care supplies -- any kind of internet connection is a luxury.