Man generates his own electricity, still pays electricity taxes

[Hydrogen]

This is a news story about a man who installed 35 solar panels on his home.

http://www.anonews.co/man-still-has-to-pay-tax-for-energy-he-generates-himself/

This man pays electricity taxes on every watt of energy his house consumes, even though he is self sufficient & produces more energy than he consumes from the power grid.

Should he pay taxes for a service rendered by the state which he does not utilize?

Crypto taxes are a hot topic in this section. This news story could in the future apply to crypto mining. Imagine if someone bought enough solar panels to power their bitcoin mining operation. And the state charged them for every kilowatt hour of energy their bitcoin miners consume, even though their operation is fully powered independently outside of state generated or regulated electrical grids.

This news story reminds me of this case where uganda tried to tax its citizens for using social media websites like twitter and facebook:

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=4614685.0

What are peoples thoughts on this?

[1714181149]

1714181149

[1714181149]

1714181149

[1714181149]

1714181149

[1714181149]

1714181149

[trecore4]

Now I am afraid to use green energy. Lolz.

What kind of government does that? A greedy one?

I dont think that it is the valid claim from the state government because using solar panels and energy generated with it should be free of taxes. In my country government is literally giving subsidies to buy the solar panels and encouraging people to use them.

After reading your story it feels sad that how they are demotivating the miner after harvesting the green energy also.

[fernandoclause]

This is a news story about a man who installed 35 solar panels on his home.

http://www.anonews.co/man-still-has-to-pay-tax-for-energy-he-generates-himself/

This man pays electricity taxes on every watt of energy his house consumes, even though he is self sufficient & produces more energy than he consumes from the power grid.

Should he pay taxes for a service rendered by the state which he does not utilize?

Crypto taxes are a hot topic in this section. This news story could in the future apply to crypto mining. Imagine if someone bought enough solar panels to power their bitcoin mining operation. And the state charged them for every kilowatt hour of energy their bitcoin miners consume, even though their operation is fully powered independently outside of state generated or regulated electrical grids.

This news story reminds me of this case where uganda tried to tax its citizens for using social media websites like twitter and facebook:

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=4614685.0

What are peoples thoughts on this?

he should not be taxed and if the government is forced to pay taxes it means that people must be replaced by the government in the country and if they cannot be replaced, they may have to surrender to this situation and if forced to pay taxes should be reduced by the tax price

[charlotte04]

This is a news story about a man who installed 35 solar panels on his home.

http://www.anonews.co/man-still-has-to-pay-tax-for-energy-he-generates-himself/

This man pays electricity taxes on every watt of energy his house consumes, even though he is self sufficient & produces more energy than he consumes from the power grid.

Should he pay taxes for a service rendered by the state which he does not utilize?

Crypto taxes are a hot topic in this section. This news story could in the future apply to crypto mining. Imagine if someone bought enough solar panels to power their bitcoin mining operation. And the state charged them for every kilowatt hour of energy their bitcoin miners consume, even though their operation is fully powered independently outside of state generated or regulated electrical grids.

This news story reminds me of this case where uganda tried to tax its citizens for using social media websites like twitter and facebook:

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=4614685.0

What are peoples thoughts on this?

Well if everyone will start using that kind of energy for their homes then maybe our governments will have no use and will reduce the money of the country because of that. But still doing that is cruel enough.

[1Referee]

Some times I really believe that the best option is to live somewhere deep in the forests of South America just to not be confronted with all this nonsense.

No internet. No money. No government. Just you, the nature, and animals, and some creepy bugs and whatnot.

Where I live we are subject to so many taxation laws, that even if you don't use anything, or don't have an actual income, you still have to pay tax. I see it happen quite frequently that people without an income and any way to pay due taxes, are being bombarded with penalties constantly adding 50-100% to the amount the tax department thinks they owe them.

Is this the way we are supposed to live? Why does someone not being able to pay a penny have its life ruined because of all the penalty amounts that are being added each quarter of not paying? It's ridiculous.

[drm]

Now I am afraid to use green energy. Lolz.

What kind of government does that? A greedy one?

I dont think that it is the valid claim from the state government because using solar panels and energy generated with it should be free of taxes. In my country government is literally giving subsidies to buy the solar panels and encouraging people to use them.

After reading your story it feels sad that how they are demotivating the miner after harvesting the green energy also.

There is only one kind of government, and that is the greedy one indeed.
They mostly care more about money than the environment or their own people in some cases. Cases like this show exactly that.

[brukva]

The government always wants to get more money from the people and it still does not matter how to get them.

[jseverson]

I have to admit, this was so ridiculous that I had to fact check. And...wow. I understand that HST is a consumption tax, but that shouldn't be applicable in this situation where he's not really taking anything from the state. Shouldn't its tax base be the money spent anyway? He didn't spend anything for his electricity. 0 multiplied by whatever should be zero. I wonder, does this happen anywhere else?

I did find this in the linked article though:

The provincial government did say it has commissioned a review of the electrical grid, which could lead to changes to the net-metering program.

...so they also probably realize how stupid this is.

[usorin]

Since the owner is connected to the grid it is normal to pay some taxes, but since the house is self sustained i don't understand why doesn't he just disconnected himself from.the national electric grid. It is as simple as that.

[Andrew S]

All because they care more about themselves and filling their pockets, rather than allow people to earn more.

[Lucius]

Unfortunately, this person was not informed about how the electric system works in Canada, maybe if he know how stupid rules his county have, he would not invest in solar panels. In some countries people can sell energy they produce in main grid, and make some profit from that - and I see this man can also do that :

Currie is part of P.E.I.’s net metering program, which allows individual homeowners to generate their own electricity, sending any excess into the grid in exchange for credits so they don’t have to pay when they draw electricity back out of the grid — for example, at night when solar power can’t be generated.

But if he wants to keep all electricity for himself he need to pay tax. It is strange, but in this way Canada wanted to discourage people who would like to be energetically independent.

Since the owner is connected to the grid it is normal to pay some taxes, but since the house is self sustained i don't understand why doesn't he just disconnected himself from.the national electric grid. It is as simple as that.

I am not sure can he do that, maybe there is some law by which it is mandatory to have an electric meter and be connected to the electrical network, but it would be nice to just disconnect from the main grid. Although even then it would not be impossible for the government to collect taxes, it would be probably based on the size of the house or solar panels.

[Betwrong]

This is outrageously ridiculous and I really pity that man, Kris Currie, who put extraordinary amount of thought and work to achieve a goal of self sufficiency. However, I disagree with the conclusion of this article that such  energy schemes  are going to become more prevalent in the future. I believe in human progress and I think that such foolish taxes will be abolished in the future just as the infamous Inheritance tax had been abolished in most countries.

[LeGaulois]

It could be a tax supposed to be charged to compensate the pollution or the development of green energy. Like the companies do. No matter if you generate your own electricity I think it's fair to participate. It's not like if the man was forced to pay a VAT.

[carlisle1]

This is really unfair when we have to pay for the electricity that we don't consume but this leave him no option but to obey because thats what the law says

Thos reason why some people love to do illegal activities than the legal because they can do anythi without authorization from the governments..

[stompix]

This man pays electricity taxes on every watt of energy his house consumes, even though he is self sufficient & produces more energy than he consumes from the power grid.

So he is self-sufficient but...he produces more than he consumes from the grid.
So, unless he consumes 0 from the gird he is NOT self-sufficient.

If he is not happy with that and he says he is independent why hasn't he disconnected himself from the grid?
Simply because the devil is in the details.

For April, Currie's bill shows he paid $13.49 HST on the 644 kilowatt hours of electricity he used — a third of the electricity his home produced over that period.

This indeed would be a viable model for ever country...
When the sun is up we all produce green energy and get credits and at night we get back free energy from....
Not my problem, I put panels up!!!  /s

[bits4books]

Interesting and quite weird thing because in my country the man who was issued than 35 solar panels he can just sell electricity to a government and not pay the electricity bills at all and you're having few examples.

[magneto]

This is a news story about a man who installed 35 solar panels on his home.

http://www.anonews.co/man-still-has-to-pay-tax-for-energy-he-generates-himself/

This man pays electricity taxes on every watt of energy his house consumes, even though he is self sufficient & produces more energy than he consumes from the power grid.

Should he pay taxes for a service rendered by the state which he does not utilize?

Crypto taxes are a hot topic in this section. This news story could in the future apply to crypto mining. Imagine if someone bought enough solar panels to power their bitcoin mining operation. And the state charged them for every kilowatt hour of energy their bitcoin miners consume, even though their operation is fully powered independently outside of state generated or regulated electrical grids.

This news story reminds me of this case where uganda tried to tax its citizens for using social media websites like twitter and facebook:

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=4614685.0

What are peoples thoughts on this?

You're right. It's similar to the Ugandan tax on social media in that the government is taxing something that is not even generated by them, or even regulated or controlled by them.

This man is generating all of his energy and being self sustained. Not only that, he is generating energy in a responsible and renewable manner. Yet, the government is taxing him on something that is not even maintained or owned by the state/public. It's essentially a tax for using a thing that is generated completely responsibly... What?

The concern with crypto mining is definitely there. I think that it's unlikely the government would change their attitude towards crypto mining power generation and the taxes involved with self-sustained electricity generation. It's absurd, but it'll probably stick since cryptos are only going to continue to grow and would be a big revenue source for the government. Obviously though, the mining operations would probably just move overseas, at an increasing pace, if these taxes continue to be put in place to disincentivise people from generating their own power to mine/use in general.

[lephuqui]

This is a news story about a man who installed 35 solar panels on his home.

http://www.anonews.co/man-still-has-to-pay-tax-for-energy-he-generates-himself/

This man pays electricity taxes on every watt of energy his house consumes, even though he is self sufficient & produces more energy than he consumes from the power grid.

Should he pay taxes for a service rendered by the state which he does not utilize?

Crypto taxes are a hot topic in this section. This news story could in the future apply to crypto mining. Imagine if someone bought enough solar panels to power their bitcoin mining operation. And the state charged them for every kilowatt hour of energy their bitcoin miners consume, even though their operation is fully powered independently outside of state generated or regulated electrical grids.

This news story reminds me of this case where uganda tried to tax its citizens for using social media websites like twitter and facebook:

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=4614685.0

What are peoples thoughts on this?

This is just one of the unreasonable things of the government. There are places where the government collects your land for very cheap fees then build high-rise apartments. Where you have to spend a lot of money to live there and they make a lot of money. Meanwhile, your land charge is still taxable. Unreasonable things happen everywhere.
But for crypto I feel more secure. They did not know who was holding it. There is no way to collect taxes. Only get them tax if they trade on any exchange

[Flagship11]

Govs will always want a piece of the action and profit.
If someone were to generate their own air even then the gov would want a cut

[qumeijia]

I think he no need to pay the electricity taxes because he does't consume the electricity provided by the government or the state. Good society is they who responsible to what they do,they who connect to the maid gird of course should pay the taxes to the authority.