Staff
Texting just got taxing.
In a recommendation to the cash-strapped federal and provincial governments, a 10-cent-per-text fee may be levied on all cellphone users.
Based on the number of cellphone users, the proposed “Text Tax” could raise enormous revenue.
With estimates of 30 million cellphones being used in Canada, and an average of 100 texts per phone per month, the typical consumer would pay an additional $10 per month.
Across Canada, federal tax revenues could increase by $300 million per month, or an astronomical $3.6 billion per year.
There is no official word from consulting firm Create Waves on how the funds would be collected.
Preliminary suggestions include each community hiring a “Text Tax” treasurer, much like a meter man of past years, who would solicit funds door-to-door at homes and businesses.
Another idea is a satellite-tracking system that would monitor all cellphone use within Canada and automatically bill cellphone owners each month.
The advantage of this system, according to Create Waves’ spokesperson Lotta Blarney, is that such a monitoring system would provide cell owners with an automatic series of beeps every 10 texts—reminding them of how often they are using their phones.
While the proposed tax merely is in the discussion stage, it’s easy to understand why both provincial and federal governments could show interest in the concept as the potential revenue is staggering.
While the average consumer would pay an extra $120 per year, heavy users who text 30-35 times per day would see an increase in their bill of $100 every month—that’s $1,200 per year.
According to Blarney, the finalized discussion paper is expected to be made available to both levels of government in the near future.
