[TimeStar] Germany Imposes Draconian Internet Tax On Citizens

[Wayfarer Nine]

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From: Light Eye 
Sent: 10/12/2004 5:29:31 AM 


http://www.rense.com/general58/tax.htm


Germany Imposes Draconian 
Internet Tax On Citizens 
Compulsory Mass Registration Of Cell Phones Next
By Michael James in Frankfurt, Germany
10-12-4 

Germany has become the first country in the world to tax private personal
computers that are deemed to be "Internet-capable". 
The plan, long in the offing, was agreed in Berlin by the Conference of
Prime Ministers of the Federal States of Germany on October 8. It is being
billed as part of the expansion of the television and radio public services
fee, which is administered by Germany's Radio and Television Licensing
Authority and enforced by the universally despised Gebühreneinzugszentrale
(GEZ), which often resorts to controversial and illegal Gestapo-like
methods of gathering information on private citizens. 
The new tax was originally planned to come into effect on January 1, 2007.
That date still holds for businesses and large corporations, but private
households will be forced to register their PCs before the deadline of
March 31, 2005. Owners must then pay 17.03 euros a month for their PC
unless they are already complying with the full GEZ tax for a registered
television and radio. 
The decision has provoked howls of protest from the nation's estimated one
million Internet users who have eschewed the trashy sensationalism and
state propaganda associated with the public broadcasters ARD and ZDF, both
of which argue that their websites constitute a public service that
Internet users are accessing free of charge. Technically speaking, they say
in addition, anyone with an Internet-capable PC (whether actually connected
to the Internet or not) can theoretically watch their broadcasts. 
"With the same argument, the public broadcast services can demand from me a
fee for the existence of my briefcase, because in principle it may contain
an ARD television magazine that provides free viewing tips," says Arndt
Groth, President of the Federal Association of Digital Businesses (BVDW).
Groth's comments, among others, have had lawyers frantically scanning the
German Constitution for loopholes (notwithstanding the fact that the
constitution, along with the Federal Republic of Germany itself,
technically ceased to exist as a legal document on July 17, 1990). 
Undaunted by the criticism that Germany is effectively nationalising
private telecommunications in much the same way as Hitler did during his
long reign of terror and in a style reminiscent of the taxes imposed on
typewriters by the Communist Party in the former totalitarian German
Democratic Republic, the Federal Minister for Culture, Christiane Weiss,
has also signalled her intention of subjecting Internet-capable mobile
phones to the new tax. 
"Cultural sovereignty is not to be interfered with," she warned owners of
PCs and mobile phones who may consider taking the matter to the European
Courts. In a lengthy communications directive issued at the end of
September, she defended the massive state subsidies to public broadcasters
against advocates of a more free-market approach to the German media,
implicitly threatening the EU's monopoly regulator with non-cooperation
should a hearing be convened. 
Tax-weary citizens who fail to pay the GEZ imposition or register a
television or radio are liable to pay crippling fines amounting to
thousands of euros and even face lengthy prison sentences. By law,
individuals and businesses resident in Germany must register every
television, video-recorder, DVD-player, radio, car radio and radio
alarm-clock that they own, regardless as to their state of repair. 
That list will surely grow longer once hectored members of the public have
been goose-stepped into registering their personal computers and mobile
phones for fear of the GEZ knock on the door. 
_____ 
Michael James is a British freelance journalist and translator, resident in
Germany for over 12 years. Permission to republish his work without
alteration is freely granted to fellow libertarians.