by Dean Ralph

Created on: November 26, 2009   Last Updated: November 27, 2009

There are a few reasons why the Government should not tax the internet. First off, they already are. You as an internet subscriber are already paying taxes, although not directly. As with every service, taxes that the provider must pay are figured into the service price. The providers are paying an income tax on the money they make. So for all intents and purposes the Government is already taxing the internet.

The second thing one must take into consideration is the economic impact that further taxing the internet would have. Consider the fact that the internet is a global enterprise. If the United States imposed further taxes on websites or service providers, these companies would just move their primary business location out of the country.

They would still have the same amount of customers and not have to pay the higher taxes. This would cause job loss and ultimately, a loss in tax revenue for the government. If the government were to tax the people based on internet usage, it would have almost the same effect.

Thousands of companies are saving millions of dollars annually by using the internet for conferencing, communication, advertising and sales. To tax these companies would cause loss of jobs due to the decrease in profit margin.

The same would be true if the people that were shopping online and ordering their business inventories via the internet were being taxed for using the internet. Sales would drop causing the loss of jobs as well. Once again leading to a loss in tax revenue for the government instead of an increase.

As for the government monitoring the internet, that can go either way. Rest assured, there are agencies out there that are already doing this. For the Government to monitor web content for illegal activity such as Child pornography or terrorist communication should be allowed.

For the government to monitor individuals for religious or other data should not be allowed. Information found in blogs, e-mails or other open forum sites should not be allowed to be collected unless illegal activities are being threatened or conspired.

They should not be allowed to collect information on individuals based on religious, political or other personal topics. For them to monitor the communication and internet activity of a specific individual or organization, should require a court order where just cause has been shown by the government.

Like a search warrant, it should be topic specific. It should state exactly what the government is monitoring the people for, such as terrorism, scams, Child pornography etc. Any information gathered during the monitoring period not directly covered by the court order would be inadmissible.

For example, if they had a court order for the website Helium.com for suspected terrorist conspiracies and they uncovered promotion of Child Pornography, they would not be able to use that against the website without returning to court and getting another court order. The intenet should fall under the rights of free speech and general right to privacy laws.

Learn more about this author, Dean Ralph.
Click here to send this author comments or questions.