California trying to tax text messages

[JamieDimonsBalls]

https://www.foxnews.com/us/california-to-consider-taxing-text-messages-reports-say

California state regulators have been working on a plan to charge mobile phone users a text messaging fee intended to fund programs that make phone service accessible to the low-income residents, reports said Tuesday.

The California Public Utilities Commission is scheduled to vote on the proposal next month, but critics have already come out against the scheme, the San Jose Mercury Newsreported.

“It’s a dumb idea,” Jim Wunderman, president of the Bay Area Council business group, told the paper. “This is how conversations take place in this day and age, and it’s almost like saying there should be a tax on the conversations we have.”

While the amount consumers would be expected to pay remained unclear, some business groups are saying the new charges could cost wireless users more than $44 million a year, FOX11 Los Angeles reported.

 

[mashnut]

It’s so easy now to replace texts with something like WhatsApp or Slack, all this does is push more people away from SMS as a messaging platform.

 

[JamieDimonsBalls]

It’s so easy now to replace texts with something like WhatsApp or Slack, all this does is push more people away from SMS as a messaging platform.

If that happens, those will be taxed too.

 

[twenty02]

If that happens, those will be taxed too.

Good luck taxing an internet based messaging service, would be chasing a tail

 

[sglowrider]

It’s so easy now to replace texts with something like WhatsApp or Slack, all this does is push more people away from SMS as a messaging platform.

What is SMS?

 

[AtlasShruggd]

What is SMS?

Short Message Service

 

[sglowrider]

Short Message Service

 

[Fro]

This would probably be a monthly tax/fee on your cell phone bill that most people wouldn't read/care about along with all the other stuff.

Good luck taxing an internet based messaging service, would be chasing a tail

Facebook owns Whatsapp and is in California so they'd be pretty easy to find.

 

[twenty02]

This would probably be a monthly tax/fee on your cell phone bill that most people wouldn't read/care about along with all the other stuff.



Facebook owns Whatsapp and is in California so they'd be pretty easy to find.

Point is if they started charging people for WhatsApp would just migrate to another free platform

 

[Marvin the Martian]

Point is if they started charging people for WhatsApp would just migrate to another free platform

Yep, most people will just switch to an app that works and is free. Most people, especially the young and the advantaged. Older people who aren't as tech savvy, and poorer people who may not invest as much into technology knowledge will be paying the tax.

 

[JamieDimonsBalls]

Yep, most people will just switch to an app that works and is free. Most people, especially the young and the advantaged. Older people who aren't as tech savvy, and poorer people who may not invest as much into technology knowledge will be paying the tax.

Maybe they could pick up the phone instead of texting?

Or send an email

 

[Fro]

It seems like the context is missed that they have fee/tax on traditional phone calls right now, but that's not bringing in nearly as much revenue since everyone texts now instead.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/mone...te-considers-plan-charge-messages/2288600002/

California's Public Utilities Commission is considering a plan that would charge mobile phone users a fee for sending text messages, according to recent public law filings.

The proposal is partially due to landline-era legislation coupled with the fact the people are shifting patterns away from voice calls in favor of texting.

California is determining whether surcharges and user fees on text messaging comply with Public Purpose Programs, which use tax revenue to make telecommunications services accessible to low-income residents. The programs, which date to the 1930s, were given a face-lift in the late 1990s, allowing individual states to impose requirements to preserve what's referred to as a "universal service."

During the rise of the internet, the telecommunications industry was able to elude these taxes by offering "information services" like email and web browsing.

However, as mobile phone users shifted their behavior away from making phone calls, voice call revenue for these state programs has dropped by about a third, from $16.5 billion in 2011 to $11.3 billion in 2017, according to law filings.

The wireless industry argues added fees would put carriers at a higher disadvantage since messaging services like Apple's iMessage, WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger would not be charged under the proposed legislation.

 

[wiede]

Good luck taxing an internet based messaging service, would be chasing a tail

If this happens, I believe I’ll move to CA and sell VPN services

 

[Rockfish1]

California subsidizes wireless services for poor people. To pay for this California must tax something. Apparently the program has been funded by taxes on wireless calls, and I see no reason for outrage that this might be extended to wireless texts (since that's where the traffic is moving). Sure, there will be leakage, but so what? This is true of every tax.

 

[sglowrider]

Point is if they started charging people for WhatsApp would just migrate to another free platform

I use Telegram and WeChat a lot too.

Different 'friends' on different platforms so they dont see you chatting away and wondering who you are communicating with. Call it lessons learnt.