News - Broadband tax to be imposed before general election

[HEXUS]

Minister vows to get 50p a month more out of everyone while he still can.

Read more.

[DataMatrix]

50p a month isn't so bad as long as faster internet comes.

[rabbid]

This is something extra before the enforcement of BBC broadband tax?
Our government is like one of the building societies 'little something extra'... extra charge, extra reduction in service, extra surveillance, extra waste of space.

[rabbid]

50p a month isn't so bad as long as faster internet comes.

ludicrous, it will never be spent back on broadband, it will go towards their massive debt accumulated through years of mismanagement and complacency.

[TheBloodyNine]

So they need £175mil to get the final 15% percent of people to 2mb?

Isn't most network infrastructure actually provided and paid for by the network providers, i.e. BT/Virgin? It is in my little corner of the UK any way.

As with all tax this will just go into the big pot and be pissed away on ill conceived capital projects.

[MadduckUK]

sod the last 15%, they have the sheep to entertain them

/dnrtt

[PeteSmith]

Presumably once the goal has been reached and the last 15 percent of homes have a broadband connection (>2mb) the tax will be abolished. Because otherwise it would mean this whole initiative would be nothing more than a ploy to introduce another form of taxation on the British public.. Right?

[pp05]

Presumably once the goal has been reached and the last 15 percent of homes have a broadband connection (>2mb) the tax will be abolished. Because otherwise it would mean this whole initiative would be nothing more than a ploy to introduce another form of taxation on the British public.. Right?

Pete can you or anyone give me any examples where the UK govt abolished a tax later once the goal had been achieved in the last 25 years?

[PeteSmith]

Pete can you or anyone give me any examples where the UK govt abolished a tax later once the goal had been achieved in the last 25 years?

My point exactly.

[abaxas]

Fantastic plan, if they use it for rural broadband.

However, somehow I dont think this is going to happen..

[Saracen]

Pete can you or anyone give me any examples where the UK govt abolished a tax later once the goal had been achieved in the last 25 years?

Quite.

It's worth remembering that Income Tax was introduced to fund the war against the French forces under Napoleon, and was described as temporary.

There have certainly been taxes that have been abolished because they were unworkable, with the most obvious being the Window tax, and as being hugely unpopular and politically devastating, the most obvious being the poll tax. But none come to mind as being abolished once the objective was met ... though, perhaps, if there are any, they've sunk out of our collective consciousness because they were abolished.

But 'car tax', the inappropriately named "Road Fund Licence" was supposed to be to fund road building and repair. Yet, last time I looked, only about 15% of RFL revenue actually went to roads, with the rest going into the general exchequer, and the government then still quote "can't afford it" as a reason for not doing road improvement schemes, building local bypasses, etc.

Just about every occasion a supposedly "ring-fenced" tax has been introduced that I can thing of, it's ended up as anything but ring-fenced.


As for 50p/month for broadband, I'm vehemently opposed. It'll end up with us funding it via taxation and the likes of BT and Virgin making the money from it. Far from increasing taxes for this type of project, right now (in these hard times), they ought to be thinking about cutting back on things like the BBC tax (sorry, licence) and they can start by cutting Ross's package by about 90%, leaving him only grossly overpaid, instead of offensively and grossly overpaid. And dump the ludicrous pay for BBC executives, and let them drive their own cars too instead of us paying for chauffeured limo's for them.

[Jay]

We already pay tax in the form of VAT! As if this will ever be spent on broadband provision, this will go on teenage mothers, aid for other countries, wars we have no need to be involved in and any other stupid stuff the government want to do next.

[PatK]

As for 50p/month for broadband, I'm vehemently opposed. It'll end up with us funding it via taxation and the likes of BT and Virgin making the money from it. Far from increasing taxes for this type of project, right now (in these hard times), they ought to be thinking about cutting back on things like the BBC tax (sorry, licence) and they can start by cutting Ross's package by about 90%, leaving him only grossly overpaid, instead of offensively and grossly overpaid. And dump the ludicrous pay for BBC executives, and let them drive their own cars too instead of us paying for chauffeured limo's for them.

Only one thing to add to this..

AMEN!

[crossy]

As for 50p/month for broadband, I'm vehemently opposed. It'll end up with us funding it via taxation and the likes of BT and Virgin making the money from it.

Hmm, I'm more cynical than that - I suspect that they'll collect the tax and then file it away while they raise "studies" on the most cost-effective way to "invest" it. And then you might see some trivial percentage go out as a grant to BT to pay for some much-trumpted infrastructure extension - which'll be a penny-packet job, and there'll be nothing more (other than a few more studies perhaps).

Apart from that, I couldn't agree more with your well expressed views...

[gagaga]

This is all very well, except that 2mb broadband is available country-wide via satellite (about £75/month last time i looked). Not as cheap as via ADSL or cable, but i'm not the one choosing to live miles from anywhere and expecting others to pay for the priviledge.

[McPhee]

If the extra £6/year would be spent upgrading the broadband infrastructure then i'd be happy with that. Sadly though the government is corrupt beyond belief. This money will wind up going elsewhere just like every other tax. What a joke "Great" Britain is becoming, to think only a hundred years ago this country was at it's peak, the greatest financial, military and political power in the world.