In Hungary, are going to impose a tax on Internet traffic

On October 21, Hungarian Finance Minister Mihai Varga submitted to the local parliament a draft of a draft law providing for changes in the tax regime, which are planned to be introduced in 2015. Among them, the norm imposing a special tax “on the Internet” taxed by backbone providers - is expected to charge 150 Hungarian forints for each gigabyte of pumped traffic, which is approximately equal to 50 eurocents.

At the press conference for representatives of telecoms, which was held on October 21, Varga separately noted that despite the fact that initially it was planned to tax more traditional means of communication, most of the calls and text messages go through the Internet today, which caused an increase in taxation and traffic. It was also mentioned that under the law a new subject of taxation will be the provider directly, and not the end user. At the same time, there are concerns that the increase in providers' costs will be offset by increasing the cost of services for ordinary home users, as well as entrepreneurs.
')
A similar legislative measure is planned to attract about 20 billion forints (that is, about 65.2 million euros) in 2015.

Despite the fact that Hungary has become the first country where such a legislative initiative has every chance to appear in the flesh, it is still not a pioneer in this area. Back in 2008, proposals for taxing Internet traffic, Internet telephony and certain popular services were discussed in France; The proceeds from these measures were supposed to be used to finance state-run television channels.

In turn, in the United States in 1998, Bill Clinton signed the Internet Tax Freedom Act, which prohibits taxation of the Internet of any type at any level (country, state, and local municipality), including listing examples of “forbidden” measures - like For example, a tax on traffic, email or access to the terminal provider.

Primary source:
www.portfolio.hu/en/economy/hungary_to_impose_internet_levy_in_2015_tax_plans_show.28561.html