Freeserve is taking HM Customs & Excise to court in an atempt to overturn a loophole in tax law resulting in AOL's exemption from paying VAT in the UK.
The ISP, Britain's biggest, filed for a judicial review of customs treatment of AOL - which it estimates saves the American giant £40m a year -
on Friday (March 8). The case should be heard in a month or so, according to The Sunday Times, which was awarded the Freeserve scoop.
John Pluthero told the paper: "The UK government has been fobbing off Freeserve and BT for over a year on this issue. It's time for the evasion to stop and the litigation to begin."
AOL levies no VAT on its services in the UK, thanks to an indulgent -nay, eccentric - 1997 ruling that the company was a content provider operating outside the European Union, and therefore not liable to charge for VAT. If AOL UK had, like Freeserve, been a classified as a telecoms provider within the EU, then it would have had to charge VAT. AOL UK appears to have avoided this classification because its servers live in Virginia.
AOL told the Sunday Times that it was not lobbying the government on the matter. Too right, it's had a free ride on VAT for several years - probably a lot longer than it could have dreamed of.
However, Freeserve's action may be having an unsettling effect on at least one score: AOL has been notable by its absence for the broadband free-for-all in the last couple of weeks, set in train by cheaper BT wholesale prices.
According to Freeserve, AOL is delaying in introducing a broadband option in the UK, because, The Sunday Times says, of "doubts over the legitimacy of its VAT exemption. It would be damaging for it to introduce a product at a price that it could not sustain."
News source: The Register - Freeserve goes legal in AOL VAT spat
The ISP, Britain's biggest, filed for a judicial review of customs treatment of AOL - which it estimates saves the American giant £40m a year -
on Friday (March 8). The case should be heard in a month or so, according to The Sunday Times, which was awarded the Freeserve scoop.
John Pluthero told the paper: "The UK government has been fobbing off Freeserve and BT for over a year on this issue. It's time for the evasion to stop and the litigation to begin."
AOL levies no VAT on its services in the UK, thanks to an indulgent -nay, eccentric - 1997 ruling that the company was a content provider operating outside the European Union, and therefore not liable to charge for VAT. If AOL UK had, like Freeserve, been a classified as a telecoms provider within the EU, then it would have had to charge VAT. AOL UK appears to have avoided this classification because its servers live in Virginia.
AOL told the Sunday Times that it was not lobbying the government on the matter. Too right, it's had a free ride on VAT for several years - probably a lot longer than it could have dreamed of.
However, Freeserve's action may be having an unsettling effect on at least one score: AOL has been notable by its absence for the broadband free-for-all in the last couple of weeks, set in train by cheaper BT wholesale prices.
According to Freeserve, AOL is delaying in introducing a broadband option in the UK, because, The Sunday Times says, of "doubts over the legitimacy of its VAT exemption. It would be damaging for it to introduce a product at a price that it could not sustain."
News source: The Register - Freeserve goes legal in AOL VAT spat
Part of the home
Electronic appliance maker Frigidaire recently tested a concept refrigerator with an integrated computer and touch-screen display in 50 Danish homes. Connected to the internet, the fridge allows people to browse the web and read e-mail in the kitchen.
The built-in computer also lets people store recipes, check their appointments, and even scan products with a barcode reader to put them on a shopping list. Telephone manufacturers have for years been offering devices with small displays for call-waiting and interactive address-books. But recently, several telephones have begun offering the ability to surf the web and do e-mail on larger screens. MDTel's iPhone integrates a web browser and e-mail software with a touch-sensitive colour display and keyboard so you can surf from the sofa. It is a sign of how the living room is changing. Many television makers such as Phillips and Sony have offered flat panel televisions for several years now. With prices ranging from £2,000 to £15.000, they are expensive. But they also offer sharper and brighter images, as well as consuming less energy.
Invading the home
Flat panels will spearhead the spread of electronic gadgets throughout the home. As they are small and need little power, they are being built into two-way messaging devices, security alarms and even electronic photo frames. For example, an American company called Ceiva sells a five-by-seven-inches (18 by 13 centimetres) digital photo frame with an internet connection. The frame lets you download and see a new picture everyday.
Sci-fi look
The desktop computer market, the main market for traditional cathode ray tube monitors, is also poised to explode. Only around 10% of the 108.4 million displays hipped in 2001 were flat panels. But this still amounts to a 131% growth in a year. Flat panels are expected to become more prevalent, making up more than half of all the displays sold. Several companies such as IBM and Compaq have been offering integrated flat panel computers with offerings like the NetVista and iPaq. Apple Computer, with the introduction of their latest iMac, has gone one step further, and committed itself to producing a line-up of flat panel computers. Both consumers and enthusiasts see flat panel monitors as attractive replacements over bulky monitors. The allure of flat panels is their size, as they take up less than a third of the space of traditional monitors and are a quarter of the weight. Their slim Star Trek look has led them to quickly become a fashion statement that is practical as well.
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