gHacks Technology News | Latest Tech News, Software And Tutorials » internet tax http://www.ghacks.net A technology news blog covering software, mobile phones, gadgets, security, the Internet and other relevant areas. Sat, 11 Feb 2012 17:32:23 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 Germany introduces Internet Taxhttp://www.ghacks.net/2006/10/20/germany-introduces-internet-tax/ http://www.ghacks.net/2006/10/20/germany-introduces-internet-tax/#comments Fri, 20 Oct 2006 08:43:29 +0000 Martin Brinkmann http://www.ghacks.net/2006/10/20/germany-introduces-internet-tax/ Please read on this is a funny story, I promise that. Germans pay about 19$ a month if they own a television. This fee was introduced right after the war to make it possible that state independent tv stations would be able to run without receiving money from the state. There were only those stations after the war and it made sense at this time. Nowadays you have dozens of tv stations but you still pay the money for those state independent ones (all other stations don’t see a dime of that money).

The funny thing about this tax is that you have to pay if you own a tv, it does not matter if you are actually watching the stations that get the money. So, even if you would use your tv exclusively for DVDs and video games you would have to pay the 19$ a month.

It was decided a few years ago to charge everyone who has a pc with an internet connection as well which means if you do not have a tv you still have to pay if you have a pc with internet connection (who does not ?) because you could view the very limited streams that those tv stations offer on their website.

It begins to get funny right now. If you run a business you have to pay for private and business use which means you pay for a private tv and for your pc with internet connection at work. You would also pay for your mobile if it is capable of that.  Oh, did I mention that you also pay if you run a dedicated server somewhere ? Yeah that is right, you pay those fees because the dedicated server is connected to the internet.

It does not matter that you do not have physical access to the server nor that there is no monitor to watch the streams if you would make it into the secured server room.

The most disturbing aspect of this internet tax is that you have to pay because you could watch the streams on the internet pages, you do not pay because you do. Does anyone else think this is kinda weird ?

What is happening in your country, do you have similar experiences ?

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