[Chapter-delegates] Taxing Internet services

[John Levine]

>As you may know, the Government of Canada is considering implementing a tax on Internet
>service to generate funding for the development of Canadian content in light of declining
>revenues in the traditional media sector. Two scenarios are under consideration:
>1         A tax on online content providers, like content streaming sites (thus, the tax in
>Canada has been referred to as the ‘Netflix tax’).
>2         A tax on Internet service, added to a subscriber’s Internet fees.

Canada has a long standing policy of taxing the media to fund Canadian
content.  People now get a lot of media from the Internet that they
used to get from cable and satellite TV, hence the declining revenue
in those sectors.  The proposal re-evens the playing field.  The
numbers I've seen are like 2%, and if a 2% price rise would kill ISPs,
they were going to die anyway.

If you think that it's worth funding Canadian content at all, it should
be funded fairly.  If you don't, get rid of the tax on all media and
don't give just one of them a free pass.

R's,
John