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OT: Swedish tax authorities wants customer records from ISP:s

Started by kim, 2007.10.26, 17:13:18

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kim

Question here if any of you on this forum recognise this from you own country and what the Swedish tax authorities (IRS) are doing now here in Sweden. What has happened is that the IRS has sent out letters to ISP and demanded them to provide the IRS with their customers records and domain data. This due to that the IRS now have started to figure out that they can get some extra tax money on banner, ebay and paypal activities.

What I guess that most people would be against is that they wants the raw data to harvest through it and see what they can find. So they are not asking for specific customer records where they can show that there is a criminal act involved.

Are there similar activities in other countries? A few more lines can be found at my blog.

sdennis

There's been talk for years about collecting sales tax from online purchases, but they keep putting a kabash to it every time the issue comes up.  It seems that no matter where you live, the government will find some way to stick their greedy hands in everything.  >:(
OS/2: Shuts gates, opens windows.

Terry

There is something with the same ramifications in the USA called:  "Real I.D."

This rejected bill, was inserted at the last minute, "just after midnight," into a military funding bill, and was passed without one bit of debate, and nobody at the federal level is mounting any resistance.  If you go to the sole "midnight instigator" - Congressman James Sensenbrenner's website - you'll find his successful bill is currently buried deep within its pages.  Why?  The government now realizes the monster it has on its hands because they have moved Real I.D.'s starting date back from 2007.  When you look at the resistance now being forged by so many "unusual political bedfellows" - you can readily see the threat to personal freedoms that Real I.D. poses to the consumer.

If you have a religious faith tradition, you may respond as President Ronald Reagan is reported to have done when a national I,D Card was first floated:  "This sounds like the mark of the Beast!"  The response you see, when this information is shared with others, is equally split between helplessness and disbelief.

Wikipedia => http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/REAL_ID_Act

A.C.L.U. => http://www.realnightmare.org/

UnRealID => http://www.unrealid.com/

N.C.S.L. => http://www.ncsl.org/realid/

The cost to implement Real I.D., through Driver's License Centers, in my home state of Pennsylvania, is estimated at $150M+ USD.  The commercial list vendors are lining up to get hold of the data to be mined, and; when you become a victim of I.D. Theft - they will look at you with puppy-dog eyes, "Who me?"  Can the data to custom-target USA internet taxation be far behind?

kim

Quote from: sdennis on 2008.01.28, 14:13:47There's been talk for years about collecting sales tax from online purchases, but they keep putting a kabash to it every time the issue comes up.  It seems that no matter where you live, the government will find some way to stick their greedy hands in everything.  >:(

Well, what makes it even worse here is that the IRS are demanding to get information that even the police couldn't get hold of without getting a court order to release the information. More or less all large ISP got this letter and has released the information. To remember, they didn't ask for any kind of specific information related to a company or individual that have committed a crime. No they asked to get bulk information to see who has a domain and if they are running a site with banners. Based on this they will then make an estimate of how much earnings they've made and send them an extra tax bill.

By this the Swedish IRS acts as judge, police without any possibility of fair trial for the individuals. Guess that the US patriot act is on the same level, or?

sdennis

QuoteBy this the Swedish IRS acts as judge, police without any possibility of fair trial for the individuals. Guess that the US patriot act is on the same level, or?

Welcome to our world.  Right now, the Department of Justice (and Department of "Homeland Security") can basically do anything they really want as long as they invoke the sacred word of "terrorism" in it.  It's a carte blanc to spy on people and generally be nosy about anything and everything that they consider "anti-American".  It's the hope of nearly every American I know that the PATRIOT Act will be struck down after the change in leadership here in the US.

Many of us Americans are embarrassed by the actions of our government-terribly so.  I have several international friends who have put off visiting me because of the way they are treated.  As our IRS acts as judge, jury and executioner, so does DHS.  I don't blame anyone for not wanting to be booked upon arrival in the US simply because you're not "from here".

Not all of us are xenophobic and we're pretty hoppin' mad that America's reputation has been pretty much permanently ruined in the eyes of the rest of the world.  I served my country in the US Army and am proud of it.  I love my country and what it stands for...and not what the government thinks it stands for.  I mean, nearly everyone who holds office in Congress or the Presidency are multimillionaires...and they got that way from being bought and sold from the highest bidder.

Anyhow, sorry for the rant.  After all, we live in a country where a potential candidate for the office of President wants to turn the US Constitution into a "living word of God" (Mike Huckabee).

With idiots like that in office (and worse, the idiots that vote people like that in!), about the only thing to do is move out of the country...

-- Sean
OS/2: Shuts gates, opens windows.