Tax on Texts

[Watcher1]

Guys (affiliated to the Greens), what have you got to say about your member "wroking on this since last October"? I mean, come on, does it really take 6 months to talk about putting a 1c levy on text messages? She even screwed the whole thing up claiming it would raise 1.4bn. What was she doing, using an abacus? It would explain the length of time she has been "working" on it.

Good idea, but come on, 6 friggin months. This just goes to show how little politicians actually do. Fair enough, they are "doing" things, but they cant be meaning full things.

[New_Economic_Agenda]

well i'm not affiliated with the greens but from my vantage it was an embarrassment. she actually got the figures wrong twice:



"The Green Party has been considering the idea since last October’s budget. The tax could bring €146 million into the exchequer, Ms White said on RTÉ radio yesterday, revising her original estimate of €1.4 billion. The figure was based on four million people sending 10 text messages on average per day, she said.

Some 25 million text messages are sent by Irish mobile phone users each day, according to communications regulator ComReg. Based on this figure, a one cent levy on each text message would take in some €91 million in taxes annually"

[aodh_rua]

I couldn't get over the €1.4 billion figure. She was on Newstalk repeating the figure earlier in the week, Ger Gilroy said the number was closer to 98 million and she said that would be a matter of which figures you used (Newstalk were using ComReg - where else would you get them).

Did she seriously think that we send 140 billion texts a year? We'd all have arthritic thumbs.

[DeathKnell]

well i'm not affiliated with the greens but from my vantage it was an embarrassment. she actually got the figures wrong twice:



"The Green Party has been considering the idea since last October’s budget. The tax could bring €146 million into the exchequer, Ms White said on RTÉ radio yesterday, revising her original estimate of €1.4 billion. The figure was based on four million people sending 10 text messages on average per day, she said.

Some 25 million text messages are sent by Irish mobile phone users each day, according to communications regulator ComReg. Based on this figure, a one cent levy on each text message would take in some €91 million in taxes annually"

If this really does not make you worry about the quality of our politicians, then you are either rich enough to not care or a FF monkey moron.
I will give the voters of the Green party some kudos for knowing this was an embarrassment and will make them look like idiots, but FFers wouldnt care....


Basic maths.. Even the supposition is wrong.. I mean the 4 million people would include toddlers and folks 80+. Now, excuding the exceptional cases both side, there will be nowhere near 4 million separate people texting every day.
I accept that auto texting will more than make up for this shortfall, and there are probably more than 40 million texts a week, but come on!!! 1.4 BILLION..

Stupid cow is all I can say..

[Effin Effer!!!]

Ridiculous figures! She made a right fool of herself. If the Greens keep this kind of thing up they'll collectively make themselves look like the new Fiona O'Malley of Irish politics, then no-one will take them seriously.

Not a bad idea in the main tough. One cent on text messages is something most people won't actually notice. And the circa €100 million would come in pretty handy right about now.

[Watcher1]

AND she was working on this since last October. OH MY GOD, even if she got the figures right, 6 MONTHS on a simple idea. This has brought my level of dumbfoundedness (is that even a word) to a new level.

We really have to get rid of about hald the TD's in this country and get rid of the Seanad in its entitrety. They obviously dont have enough to do for all their "busy-ness".

[Digout]

how about a tax on hot air, waffle, spoof and spin? At least we would make a few quid out of the Green/FF day out....

[slx]

Based on Comreg's stats Irish Electronic Communications, Statistical information, Comreg's Trend Unit, Analytical Research - Comstat

In Q3 2008 we sent 2,830,863,556 SMS messages, one could assume this figure would be roughly accurate for 2009.

Multiply by 4 to get full year

11,323,454,224

Multiply by 1 cent

= €113,234,542

Quite a bit, but no where near the figure's she's waffling on about!

Although, it's likely that the number of texts per quarter has increased if the usual trends continue.

[Tony_1975]

Why is everyone talking about this idiots bad maths and no-one talking about the scandal of these thieving b@stards stealing money from us every time we have the cheek to contact our friends.

[The OD]

Why is everyone talking about this idiots bad maths and no-one talking about the scandal of these thieving b@stards stealing money from us every time we have the cheek to contact our friends.

True Tony, very true. If the Greens are so committed to the environment, surely they can see that taxing technologies like this is counter productive?

Would they prefer we got up and drove to see our friends instead?

Whats next? We are already taxed on TV licences, taxed on our broadband bills, taxed on our phone bills, both landline and mobile - the idea of the ''virtual office'' is something that the Greens should be promoting, not attempting to tax.

Stupid if you ask me.