In a story published by Circleid.com written by Alex Tajirian, CEO at DomainMart, Mr. Tajirian suggests that all parked, “unused” or “idle” pages need to have a Tax imposed on them to reduce cybersquatting, even if the domain name is generic.
Mr. Tajirian proposes that all “parked” domains or “unused” or “idle” domains be subject a tax similar to a property tax for real estate:
“We need a tax.”
“Right now a tax is the weapon needed by the domain name community. We face way too many cyber and typosquatters. To drive them back, let’s tax parked and unused domain names.
The tax will make it much harder for speculators to turn a profit while they keep domains sitting idle or parked.:
The industry, not government, will impose the tax, and the revenues will go to the Internet community at large. Meanwhile, brand-name owners will see lower legal fees, reduced IP damage, and less siphoning of revenue.
Cybersquatting has continued full-strength after the rollout of the new gTLDs. Registries declare their intention to block unauthorized registrations, but the registrations continue. This is despite the advent of new safeguards like the Trademark Clearinghouse (TMCH) database and Uniform Rapid Suspension (URS) services.
I propose a tax similar to a government land value tax, which is a levy on the unimproved value of land only.
For domain names, the tax would be based on their market values, and levied on parked and undeveloped domain names billed to the registrant. ”
The tax should be high enough to deter parking and encourage development of domain names.
Winston Churchill said scornfully that a landlord “contributes nothing to the process from which his own enrichment is derived.” The same is true of people who buy domain names and leave them parked and undeveloped.
If the names gain value anyway, the Internet community should get a share of the added value””
Hum
So basically as the owner of the parked domain stallions.com, I should pay a “Tax” for the idiot who registered Walmart.horse.
That makes a lot of sense.
When I was researching some domain names for a post I wrote about the official site of the Eiffel Tower moving to a .Paris domain, I can across the domain eiffeltower.com, which if you look only has 1 picture of the landmark on the domain and nothing else.
It’s not a parked domain
The domain is in use, but not much in use.
The domain is not idle, but not full of activity.
So I assume if we go with Alex’s plan, someone, lets say WIPO or the IRS, will have to set up a Domain Tax Board who can review domain names and determine if they are parked, unused or idle and either be subject to tax or tax-free.
If your site is subject to tax maybe you can get a tax credit for each picture or word on the page.
That would be a Domain Tax Credit.
I can see a 500 page document that spells out the Domain Tax Rules and Regs
Of course we will need a Domain Tax Court to appeal an unfavorable decision, like you can appeal a property tax valuation.
Then there will have to be a committee to decide how all this Domain Tax revenue should be distributed amongst the “Internet Community”.
Of course each member of the committee will have to get some compensation for serving and to go to ICANN and other meetings they will have to have a travel budget, staff and legal just to start.
By the way Mr. Tajirian at RightoftheDot.com we work with some Fortune 5000 companies and not all of their domain names resolve to real sites. I’m sure Microsoft and Google will be thrilled to pay a tax on thousands of domains that are inactive, are being re-directed or not used up to your standards, including thousands of defensive registrations.
Nothing like spending 6 or 7 figures on defensive registrations and then forced to pay a tax on all of it.
The last time Verisign reported on the percentage of “parked” domains it was around 12% of all .com domain names.
Not sure about unused or idle sites.
According to ntldstats.com over 57% of all new gTLD’s are “parked” meaning that it’s highly likely that at least that many will be subject to the Domain Tax
I would assume that many registrants who get hit with a “property tax” will just drop the domain name registrations which should thrill all of the registrars and registries.
The millage rate for property tax varies from state to state and county to county, in South Florida the rate is around 2% of value
You own a house with a $1M value you are going to pay $20K a year in property tax.
$3 Million dollars house $60K in taxes.
Of course for your property tax you fund police, fire, schools, hospitals and other services.
Not sure where the Domain Tax is going to go to other than to the “Internet Community”
By the way who is going to value all these 280 million domain names?
Lets just say the “Tax” would reduce the domain name base from over 280 million to under 200 million within like a day, including the 30 Million .TK domains.
All and all it sounds like a great plan which should really help the industry; the registries, the registrars and of course the registrants.
For the record, I’m willing to serve as the sole judge of the Tax Domain Court for a reasonable $800K per year plus travel and staff or around what the CEO of ICANN makes, which is 4x more than the President of the United States.
If you want to hire me, you got my number.
