June 3, 2004
No to Proposal to Tax SMS in Switzerland
"Taxing text messages is not an efficient way to finance social security long term, and would be detrimental to the development of new technologies", was the response given by the Swiss Federal Council to a proposal submitted by National Councilman Alexander Baumann.
With 3 billion SMS sent in Switzerland per year, by levying 5 centimes per SMS (which is an outrageous amount! an SMS cost between 20 and 30 centimes which is already much too high), taxes could bring in Sfr 150 million and could help finance social securtiy, according to Baumann.
The opposition claims that the adminstrative measures that would have to be put into place to levy such a tax would be disproportionate with the amount it would bring in and Sfr 150 million would only represent 0,5 % of the 30 billion spent on social security.
To the Federal Council, an SMS tax can not be put on the same level as tobacco and gaming as these taxes are meant to be disuasive to behaviour patterns which are detrimental to a person's health or to the social fabric. [Le Temps (in French)]
It looks like the Philippines may not be so lucky. The Philippine department of Finance, unmindful of the flak it would get, is reviving its plan to tax cellular-phone text messaging, arguing that the heavily indebted government had every reason to pursue such measure. Some of the reasons given for taxing are wild:according to one official "too much texting, especially of jokes, made the activity go beyond being a necessity. As such, texting becomes liable to excise tax, an impost on such items as alcohol, cigarette, luxury vehicles and jewelry. cf yesterday's post in Textually.org
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