SPECIAL REPORT: Efforts to pass a law taxing text messages in the Philippines are not new

Archie Orillosa, in a special for The Manila Times recaps how the Philippino government has tried to tax text messages since 2001.

Plans to impose taxes on SMS messages are not new. They were among the main reasons why TXTPower was formed in 2001. That year, due to the government’s ballooning deficit, the International Monetary Fund proposed new taxes on SMS. As the world’s texting capital and SMS being one of the most popular and accessible means of communications, the texting public was one of the targets of the government, which hopes to cash in on the texting craze. Each time, the public resisted the imposition of the tax.

Read full article.

Related:

-- Philippines. Scientist computes the real cost of a text message

-- Philippines. House retreats from text-tax bill

-- Philippines. SMS is tax goldmine

-- Philippines. "No to Text Tax!" campaign

-- Online campaign launched vs. text tax in the Philippines

-- Philippines. House body OKs tax on text messages

-- Related attempts to tax SMS around the world

emily | 1:59 PM | SMS and Politics |
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