Hungary PM ditches internet tax plans after mass protests

Following mass protests across the country over the past week, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban announced on Friday that he would scrap a planned internet tax. The idea of taxing internet service providers for every gigabyte of data flowing across their networks was condemned by everyone from telcos and Hungary’s …

[Mephistro]

Thumbs up for the Hungarians!

"...another mass gathering at 5pm tonight in Budapest to celebrate the government’s decision."

Drive that nail deeper, this way 'They' will take longer to forget.

[Anonymous Coward]

My prediction

They'll abandon the plan to tax data flowing on the hungarian section of the internet, but will instead introduce a tax on generating and transporting photons.

[James 51]

Re: My prediction

Sol is going to be in big trouble if they do.

[Paul Dx]

Re: My prediction

Good luck serving the summons for non-payment

[Mage]

Or ...

Just raise VAT.

[Trevor_Pott]

Re: Or ...

Or, don't use regressive taxes like VAT, but introduce a progressive tax that makes the wealthy contribute to society.

What's that? Conservative? Tax breaks for the rich so they will "reinvest?"

It's the 21st century. Give tax breaks to the rich and they buy robots. They don't create jobs.

[jonathanb]

Re: Or ...

It is already the highest in the EU, at 27%.

[psychonaut]

or...

just make the big companies (amazon, google, starbicks...etc etc) pay tax - get rid of this "licensing to our base in ireland" bullshit. just do it on gross turnover. if you have to pay a license fee and that license fee makes up x% (say, 40%) or more of your costs and is payed to a compnay that owns you then tough shit.

[YetAnotherLocksmith]

Re: or...

Far easier? A flat rate tax of say 0.5% on all online sales (shipped/sold to/from) to the country. Amazon et al would pay far far more than currently, while smaller companies would barely notice it.

Also, eBay etc would have to pass it to their sellers, meaning all the tax dodger companies actually pay something despite pretending to be selling stuff out their attic!

It is so simple. What have I missed?

[Alister]

If the people not only dislike something but also consider it unreasonable then it should not be done,” Orban said on Radio Kossuth.

There are a couple of Western "democracies" I can think of who should learn from this...

[DropBear]

It would be remarkable indeed - if only those would have been honestly believed words. As it is though...

[Anonymous Coward]

It only took tens of thousands of street protesters, and he's still pushing for "internet regulation". He's just taking the time to devise a new and improved strategy, and the "public consultation" will allow him to manufacture support.

[Justin Pasher]

Errr.... Huh?

"We really should see somehow where the huge profits generated online go, and whether there is a way to keep some of it in Hungary"

How would putting a tax on data usage "keep it in Hungary"? That would imply that the tax money the people are forced to pay would normally be going to pay for something elsewhere. It's not a sudden shift in the money's destination. If anything, you take money away from what a person can spend on other things, which a majority of the time is already spent in the country (rent, utilities, gas, car payments, insurance, etc).

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Errr.... how about a really clever idea instead?

Why not scrap all òf our rigged, whack-a-mole tax schemes and introduce an automated flat rate transaction tax?

Read about it here...

http://www.apttax.com/