Death, Taxes and Kogan?

From a very young age I have been told that there are two things in life you cannot escape “death” and “taxes”. For those who have been hit by this reality the current taxation system seems a bit much, there is:

1. Income Tax

2. Capital Gains Tax

3. Corporate Taxes

4. Goods and Services Taxes

5. Property Taxes

6. Excise Taxes

7. Customs Duties

8. Payroll Taxes

9. Fringe Benefits Tax

10. Inheritance Tax

11. Superannuation Taxes

and now the dreaded

12. Carbon Tax

Seems steep, no? All these taxes makes you wonder how we make any money at all in Australia and if it’s just a little over the top. But what if that isn’t enough? What if you could get taxed for using a “WEB BROWSER”! … <pause for effect>

Well our friends at Kogan decided that it is exactly what we need. Labelling themselves “Australia’s premier discount online store for all your technology needs,” Kogan has taken it onto themselves to “implement the world’s first Internet Explorer 7 Tax”. This tax is aimed at those users whose “system administrator has been in a coma for over 5 years,” hence allowing you (the user) to use an “antique” internet browser (Kogan’s own words). Following this the user is informed that they will be charged a 6.8% “tax” on their purchase to “make the internet a better place”.

I can see how the techno geeks at Kogan see themselves as crusaders in the ever prevalent struggle of browser updates. You can just imagine the high fives and cheers going up in the room when some stressed out designer came up with this idea… most probably looked something like this:

Although I have had my grinds with Internet Explore (IE) 7, IE8 and IE9 and most probably in the future IE10 and 11 and 12 etc, I think punishing the user for how they choose to access your site and purchase goods of you is bonkers.

I mean really… is it that hard to inform your user to “UPDATE” their browser to purchase stuff from you? I mean surely it is easier to have a pop up box that simply states “Please update your browser to continue this purchase” as apposed to whining about how  ”our web team (are) having to spend a lot of time making our new website look normal on IE7″ hence “anyone buying from the site who uses IE7 will be lumped with a 6.8% surcharge – that’s 0.1% for each month IE7 has been on the market”. I mean come on! Can someone please pull out the world’s smallest violin and break out a tune already.

Here are some reasons why people might not have updated:

1. Limitations by system administrator and the way a network is set up

2. The user is elderly and has no clue that they even need to update

3. The user is a youngster that has no interest in how a browser works

4. The computer cannot handle the newer versions of IE.

5. etc… i’m not bothered doing Kogans work for them

Lastly the definition of the word TAX…

Tax n. A tax or duty is a compulsory charge imposed on an individual or legal entity by a government or equivalent. In Australia taxes and duties are imposed by Federal, State or local governments.

Last time I check Kogan was not a Federal, State or Local Government… so technically this should really be called “The Kogan Rips Off its Customers Charge”. I just want to know if Kogan provides these funds back to the government being a tax and all and if as a user/business this tax is legally recognised for me to claim a tax back from the Australian Taxation Office. I mean if I can, maybe Kogan can teach our Prime Minister a thing or too about screwing the people with ridiculous taxes… wait… a bit to late for that.

Thank you to Abraham who brought this to my attention. If you have suggestions for theTZAR to cover send them to helptzr@gmail.com

theTZAR has spoken!