Florida Still Considering Taxing Home Networks

Legal Issues

from the taxation-for-the-purpose-of-taxation dept

Last summer we wrote about a bizarre plan in Florida to tax computer networks that made absolutely no sense under any rationale other than “the state government needs more cash.” Some taxes you can defend on the idea that they are paying for something that everyone gets to use. The Florida law, is basically a tax on companies being more efficient for setting up their own networks. The law is written so broadly that it could even apply to home wireless networks, punishing anyone who dared to use WiFi in their homes. Everyone who looks at the law realizes that it’s terribly written and would be very damaging if they decided to apply it to computer networks. However the state is desperate for cash and thus politicians are pushing to officially start taxing networks. Of course, this is short-term narrow-minded thinking. By making local individuals and companies less efficient, they’ll do damage to the overall state economy, bringing in even fewer taxes.