£6 broadband levy may be trebled for homes with multiple lines

mattheman · 26 Nov 2009 at 01:24

A controversial new £6 tax on telephone lines to fund the introduction of superfast broadband internet will leave nearly two million households paying up to three times the levy initially proposed by ministers, according to leaked government documents seen by The Times.

The plans, drawn up by Revenue & Customs, show that ministers will tax households with more than one phone line — of which there are more than 1.7 million — for each line they rent, and will also levy VAT on the charge. Families with one telephone connection, a separate line for broadband and another for a fax would end up paying £21.15 a year, instead of the originally announced £6. The Finance Bill, to be published early next year, will contain the plans for the 50p a month tax
ministers have decided to charge VAT on top of the new levy, essentially creating a tax upon a tax. They have also opted to widen the charge to also tax high-speed fibre-optic connections, and not only the standard copper lines.
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its just a joke, tax on a tax great british tax.

http://technology.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/tech_and_web/the_web/article6932537.ece

4p · 26 Nov 2009 at 01:28

Lol.

3 years and Im outa hereeee

mattheman · 26 Nov 2009 at 01:30

Thorpy said:
Lol.

3 years and Im outa hereeee

bring on the wireless connections.

Dunks · 26 Nov 2009 at 01:30

Thorpy said:
Lol.

3 years and Im outa hereeee

Don't let the door hit you on the way out.

4p · 26 Nov 2009 at 01:31

DunK1 said:
Don't let the door hit you on the way out.

Kinky, something wrong?

Andelusion · 26 Nov 2009 at 01:33

Bring it on I say, I'm happy to pay £6 (or even a lot more to be honest) a year if it means I'll be able to get faster than 512k (yes, 512k) speed broadband.

4p · 26 Nov 2009 at 01:34

Andelusion said:
Bring it on I say, I'm happy to pay £6 (or even a lot more to be honest) a year if it means I'll be able to get faster than 512k (yes, 512k) speed broadband.

My pops had 20mb in HD5

512? Really?

V4NT0M · 26 Nov 2009 at 01:38

Andelusion said:
Bring it on I say, I'm happy to pay £6 (or even a lot more to be honest) a year if it means I'll be able to get faster than 512k (yes, 512k) speed broadband.

Yea, great for people with crap connection, crap for people with great connections.

Mr. Anderson · 26 Nov 2009 at 01:42

Tax everyone to make the internet faster for everyone. It's quite a communist idea really.

As long students don't have to pay the tax i won't be overly fussed. Students need more leeway really. Make taxes and bills full price for students then what hope is there that the clever ones will stay. Anyway, that is another kettle of fish.

What happens when everyone is paying the tax then? Is that it, does Britain just stay at 20mb for everyone each for the rest of eternity or something?

Strife212 · 26 Nov 2009 at 01:46

The plans, drawn up by Revenue & Customs, show that ministers will tax households with more than one phone line — of which there are more than 1.7 million — for each line they rent, and will also levy VAT on the charge. Families with one telephone connection, a separate line for broadband and another for a fax would end up paying £21.15 a year

Who the **** would do that anyway, unless you are rich in the first place? Sounds like a 56k era setup anyway.

mattheman · 26 Nov 2009 at 01:46

Mr. Anderson said:
Tax everyone to make the internet faster for everyone. It's quite a communist idea really.

As long students don't have to pay the tax i won't be overly fussed. Students need more leeway really. Make taxes and bills full price for students then what hope is there that the clever ones will stay. Anyway, that is another kettle of fish.

What happens when everyone is paying the tax then? Is that it, does Britain just stay at 20mb for everyone each for the rest of eternity or something?

well then the money gets diverted into other government project like mps expenses.

2StepSteve · 26 Nov 2009 at 01:54

I am happy to pay..

But for **** sake give us an upload rate which is in proportionate to the download bandwidth. We will be having a download link of 100Mb and an upload of 2Mb.

You have a house with an xbox 360 on xbox live, a PC playing multiplayer games, a laptop downloading torrents (legal if it makes you feel warm inside), a laptop uploading full size photos to their site... with that kind of saturation on the upstream the downstream will suffer.

I don't care if it costs more for the ISPs. The balance of upload and download speeds are so out of whack at the moment it is crazy. I have 50Mb but only 1.5Mb upstream? Should be at least 5Mb.... What a joke!

Andelusion · 26 Nov 2009 at 01:55

Skyfall said:
Yea, great for people with crap connection, crap for people with great connections.

If I understand correctly, the £6 is apparently (used strongly) being used to fund the introduction of fibre-optic service? Which will benefit everyone in the long run.

Thorpy said:
My pops had 20mb in HD5

512? Really?

Yep. I don't have cable up my road though so the only option is DSL, and I'm a long long way from my exchange.

rsatd · 26 Nov 2009 at 02:00

Funny how it will cost me MORE to have my speed lowered... Anyway, they can all go and die.

Looks like conservatives just may get a vote from me, pending what taxes they are planning to bring in ¬_¬...

The Conservatives have already said that if they win the general election they will scrap the plans. Jeremy Hunt, the Shadow Culture Secretary, said: “This Government is simply unable to level with the public. This tax hasn’t even been implemented, yet they are already looking to triple it. How can they possibly square a commitment to universal broadband access if they are massively hiking the prices consumers will have to pay for it?”

Or just get rid of the phone line and use cable or sattelite. With skype, will you really need a physical phone line?

2StepSteve · 26 Nov 2009 at 02:09

I find it funny as I don't know how this is going to benefit everyone.. all them homes that are out in sticks will still need to have a cable of some sort ran out to them, are they saying these people will also get a level of service that the people living in highly populated towns will get? I don't think so! I can hardly see BT running fibre along a stone wall down a country road to supply the net for just 20 homes, it isn't worth the cost involved.

V4NT0M · 26 Nov 2009 at 02:18

Andelusion said:
If I understand correctly, the £6 is apparently (used strongly) being used to fund the introduction of fibre-optic service? Which will benefit everyone in the long run.

Any sources? From what I understand they just want to upgrade the copper system and provide everyone with a minimum of 2mbps, though I thought this was part of 21CN anyway.

Tefal · 26 Nov 2009 at 02:20

Andelusion said:
If I understand correctly, the £6 is apparently (used strongly) being used to fund the introduction of fibre-optic service? Which will benefit everyone in the long run.

No, it's to be used to subsidies remote and unprofitable areas so they get speeds up to 2mb.

Strife212 · 26 Nov 2009 at 02:25

Yeah, it's being used to bring 2mb to villages and stuff, sorry to dissapoint anyone who thinks they are building fibres with this money xD

Cupra · 26 Nov 2009 at 02:28

arghhh ill get cained by the tax man again with my phone line and 50mb broadband
tax the people who can get a good connection to help the ones that cant
what a load of bs
if they want a good connection that much they should move

rsatd · 26 Nov 2009 at 02:28

Strife212 said:
Yeah, it's being used to bring 2mb to villages and stuff, sorry to dissapoint anyone who thinks they are building fibres with this money xD

So I will be paying a tax that will never go away for some 20 people to get their porno faster?

They can pay for it themselves, no one made them live in the middle of nowhere.