Gordon,
It is probably inappropriate to be critical of another countries tax regime
when you don't have all the facts.
In the case of Australian Amateur licensing, which is a subset of Australian
Apparatus licensing, there are two separate charge components.
To quote from the ACMA government site
Taxes and charges
There are two types of fees applicable to apparatus licences: administrative
charges to recover the direct costs of spectrum management, and annual taxes
to recover the indirect costs of spectrum management and provide incentives
for efficient spectrum use. Indirect costs are those that cannot be directly
attributed to individual licensees. These activities include international
coordination and domestic planning and interference management.
Some years ago, Australian Amateurs were given the opportunity to consider a
different method of licensing (called a Class Licence) which would have
attracted zero charges. This is what CB and other low-powered equipment
goes under, but this was rejected out of hand by amateurs, as it would have
lost much of the protection that current apparatus licences have. This
would have been especially important in the area of repeater allocations
where much of the co-siting of amateur repeaters and other services requires
a great deal of spectrum planning.
Interestingly, I remember my first amateur licence fee in 1967. It was
$5.50, which over the course of 40 years has actually lagged behind
inflation or other measures, such as Average Weekly Earnings.
It is also worth noting that visiting amateurs pay proportionately for the
licence, i.e. 3 months would be 1/4 of the total fee.
Perhaps the whole topic of discussion can now be closed?
Cheers
Peter VK3QI
----- Original Message -----
From: "J. Gordon Beattie, Jr., W2TTT" <w2ttt@att.net>
To: <kb0fhp@comcast.net>; <towertalk@contesting.com>
Cc: <w2ttt@worldnet.att.net>
Sent: Wednesday, February 13, 2008 3:06 PM
Subject: Re: [TowerTalk] Fees for Amateur Radio
>I don't want free and I am satisfied with the US fee structure for Amateur
> Radio operators.
> I was simply noting the extreme differences in our two country's approach
> to
> the their licensing fees and the oddity of a government tax on a
> government
> fee.
> Thanks & 73,
> Gordon Beattie, W2TTT
> 201.314.6964
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: kb0fhp@comcast.net [mailto:kb0fhp@comcast.net]
> Sent: Wednesday, February 13, 2008 3:16 AM
> To: J. Gordon Beattie, Jr., W2TTT; towertalk@contesting.com
> Cc: w2ttt@worldnet.att.net
> Subject: Re: [TowerTalk] Fees for Amateur Radio
>
> If you want free - then there is always CB....
> -------------- Original message ----------------------
> From: "J. Gordon Beattie, Jr., W2TTT" <w2ttt@att.net>
>> We recently had a local couple move to Australia.
>>
>> I noted that there were new provisions for visiting operators to get
>> licenses during their visit, so I got curious as to what Australians pay
> for
>> their regular Amateur License fees and was SHOCKED!
>>
>>
>>
>> This couple, one of whom is disabled, will pay $122 ($AUD) PER YEAR to
> keep
>> their licenses.
>>
>> I love SOCIALISTS - NOT! You wonder why youth and other folks don't get
>> involved in the hobby or EMCOMM within it, and why their pool of Amateurs
> is
>> disproportionately smaller than here? I'm not picking on Australia
>> alone,
>> as there are lots of other countries that use spectrum users of all types
> as
>> sources of income.
>>
>> It's really sad to see.
>>
>>
>>
>> BTW: Did you notice that $23 of the $61 are TAXES ON FEES PAID A
>> QUASI-GOVERNMENTAL AUTHORITY?
>>
>>
>>
>> SO THEY TAX TAXES?
>>
>>
>>
>> Gosh, at this rate we'll be taxing the air.oh wait, they already want to
> do
>> that to ward off "global warming". I guess those fees will go to building
>> the earth a heat shield? Oh my! If they screw that up, we'll be right
> back
>> to the 1970's era concern over global freezing, but it will still be all
>> man's fault!
>>
>>
>>
>> Have a nice day!
>>
>>
>>
>> 73,
>>
>> Gordon Beattie, W2TTT
>>
>> 201.314.6964
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> Apparatus Licence Fee Calculator
>>
>>
>> Calculation Complete
>>
>>
>> Licence Option:
>>
>> any amateur option
>>
>>
>> Licence Type:
>>
>> amateur
>>
>>
>> Licence start date:
>>
>> 13/2/2008
>>
>>
>> Licence end date:
>>
>> 12/2/2009
>>
>> Fee
>>
>>
>> Tax for 1.0000 years:
>>
>> $ 38.00
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> Charge:
>>
>> $ 23.00
>>
>> (GST-free)
>>
>>
>> Fee:
>>
>> $ 61.00
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>>
>>
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> TowerTalk mailing list
>> TowerTalk@contesting.com
>> http://lists.contesting.com/mailman/listinfo/towertalk
>
> _______________________________________________
>
>
>
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