AT&T Tech Support 360
May 23, 2007 10:10 PM PDT
Net taxes could arrive by this fall
- Related Stories
-
IRS warns of online tax filing scams
April 16, 2007 -
Selling stuff online? Here comes the IRS
April 13, 2007 -
IRS trudges on with aging computers
April 12, 2007 -
Senators mull new taxes to fund 911 Net upgrade
April 10, 2007 -
Silicon money
March 27, 2006 -
Senators propose taxing Internet shopping
December 21, 2005 -
Phishers use IRS tax refund as bait
November 30, 2005 -
States yearn to collect online sales taxes
April 15, 2005 -
States push for piece of online sales
April 9, 2004 -
The Massachusetts Internet tax mystery
November 10, 2003 -
Fighting Internet taxes to the end
January 4, 2002 -
Selling a new Net tax system
November 15, 2001 -
Net taxes may be inevitable
October 30, 2001
State and local governments this week resumed a push to lobby Congress for far-reaching changes on two different fronts: gaining the ability to impose sales taxes on Net shopping, and being able to levy new monthly taxes on DSL and other connections. One senator is even predicting taxes on e-mail.
At the moment, states and municipalities are frequently barred by federal law from collecting both access and sales taxes. But they're hoping that their new lobbying effort, coordinated by groups including the National Governors Association, will pay off by permitting them to collect billions of dollars in new revenue by next year.
If that doesn't happen, other taxes may zoom upward instead, warned Sen. Michael Enzi, a Wyoming Republican, at a Senate hearing on Wednesday. "Are we implicitly blessing a situation where states are forced to raise other taxes, such as income or property taxes, to offset the growing loss of sales tax revenue?" Enzi said. "I want to avoid that."
A flurry of proposals that pro-tax advocates advanced this week push in that direction. On Tuesday, Enzi introduced a bill that would usher in mandatory sales tax collection for Internet purchases. Second, during a House of Representatives hearing the same day, politicians weighed whether to let a temporary ban on Net access taxes lapse when it expires on November 1. A House backer of another pro-sales tax bill said this week to expect a final version by July.
"The independent and sovereign authority of states to develop their own revenue systems is a basic tenet of self government and our federal system," said David Quam, director of federal relations at the National Governors Association, during a Senate Commerce committee hearing on Wednesday.
Internet sales taxes
At the moment, for instance, Seattle-based Amazon.com is not required to collect sales taxes on shipments to millions of its customers in states like California, where Amazon has no offices. (Californians are supposed to voluntarily pay the tax owed when filing annual state tax returns, but few do.)
Ideas to alter this situation hardly represent a new debate: officials from the governors' association have been pressing Congress to enact such a law for at least six years. They invoke arguments--unsuccessful so far--like saying that reduced sales tax revenue threatens budgets for schools and police.
But with Democrats now in control of both chambers of Congress, the political dynamic appears to have shifted in favor of the pro-tax advocates and their allies on Capitol Hill. The NetChoice coalition, which counts as members eBay, Yahoo and the Electronic Retailing Association and opposes the sales tax plan, fears that the partisan shift will spell trouble.
One long-standing objection to mandatory sales tax collection, which the Supreme Court in a 1992 case left up to Congress to decide, is the complexity of more than 7,500 different tax agencies that each have their own (and frequently bizarre) rules. Some legal definitions (PDF) tax Milky Way Midnight candy bars as candy and treat the original Milky Way bar as food. Peanut butter Girl Scout cookies are candy, but Thin Mints or Caramel deLites are classified as food.
The pro-tax forces say that a concept called the Streamlined Sales Tax Agreement will straighten out some of the notorious convolutions of state tax laws. Enzi's bill, introduced this week, relies on the agreement when providing "federal authorization" to require out-of-state retailers "to collect and remit the sales and use taxes" due on the purchase. (Small businesses with less than $5 million in out-of-state sales are exempted.)
It's "important to level the playing field for all retailers," Enzi said during Wednesday's hearing.
See more CNET content tagged:
tax,
Amazon.com Inc.,
Governor,
fall,
senator
they are not happy with their income taxes, their sales taxes,
their gas taxes, the added fees for any use of state services.
They want more, more, more. And this is yet another hand in
our wallets. We are nothing more than money cows -- a source
of revenue for the states. Our governments (and the "leaders" in
it) seem to no longer serve the people. Instead, they look at us
only to serve their needs and they always need money.
We haven't needed the internet tax for the last 230 years, so get out of my pocket.
High gas prices, raising food costs, and high taxes etc do not a strong economy make.
I for one don't think an email tax will ever happen, but if it does; I would go to the lowest common denominator for broadband or dare I say it dialup.
FTR - I know that the email circulating about 602P is a hoax... I just don't like the possibilities that are even being dicussed here when it comes to email taxation.
This would be greatly short sighted. It would only serve to widen the digital divide and hamper big business.(I doubt China would adopt such a boondoggle) Luckily, as it will affect large corporations, I doubt their lobbyists would ever let this happen. We of course need taxes, absolutely. But making it even harder for kids living in poverty to access the most incredible, educational and most fantastic communication device ever invented? The printing press is widely regarded as the most important invention in history. The printer on our computers are peripherals. This will hurt economic growth, education and society as a whole. Once again, the Internet is being governed by people who don't understand it.
wastes them that pisses me off. Education sucks, Health Care
sucks, Roads suck, and yet they vote themselves payraise after
payraise.
To bad most everbody in this country is too chickenshit to stand
and demand some accountability... Place is already delivered to
hell in a handbasket.
The cure is going to a lot more painfull than the disease...
However, since I'm not taxed merely to walk into the store, why should I be taxed merely to go online? Even with cell phones, which are taxed, the tax depends on the usage plan---so merely having a cellphone doesn't tax me.
As for the "it's hurting our police and schools", don't states already have many avenues for generating tax revenue, such as property tax? And, somehow, I doubt the new money will go to those ends anyways.
Of the lesser of the two evils, I'd be in favor of an Internet sales tax and a permanent moratorium on Net access. I'd prefer neither, but if that's not an option, that's my second favorite preference.
If we want to stop the Net tax idea, we need to write to our Senators and explain that it is not fair to tax any type of Net access.
Enough already!
Keep the liberals out of my wallet and the conservatives out of my bedroom!
We already pay taxes for other communication devices (cell phones, land lines) so it also makes sense to tax internet access.
Charging a tax for email sent is one way to pretty much kill spam, but I don't see this working out too well.
Mind you, just cause I understand their reasoning doesn't mean I agree with them.
They tax us enough, let them use what they got more effectively, not tax us more.
Time to boot all incumbents out of office!
That is a message they will comprehend well!
Such taxes will kill many internet businesses for people pay enough in shipping. And I question whether a business in one state should have a right to levy and collect for another state.
As to tax on email? They've messed up the post office system, so now they're gonna tax email to get bucks out of us anyway?
We're right down to being taxed for the air we breathe. The internet in my opinion is like the airwaves and they don't tax every radio program, phone call we make, so I will resist to the last breath and type stroke.
Who do we write, appeal to, to put a quick and definitive end to this proposal.?
- What will happen during lean times?
-
by sanenazok
May 24, 2007 7:41 AM PDT
- Ok, so the US economy is doing "OK" right now - the stock market is breaking records, unemployment and inflation are both low. Still the local and state politicos are looking for more tax sources? I shudder to think what will happen when the economy goes through a recessionary cycle like it's bound to do. All I know that the biggest pusher for new taxes where I live (Chicago) is the governor who constantly creates new entitlements without having any means to pay for them. Let's see, he gives out free healthcare, free pensions for political placements, unionizes all state employees so he can't fire them, and big surprise the guy needs more taxes. I'm sure it's like this all over the place.
-
Reply to this comment
View
reply
-
-
See all 178 Comments >>Yay that's what I get for living in a blue state (but I guess republican/red states have the same kind of crapola).
Oh well, I'm starting a new tax-exempt religion. It'll be like scientology, except unlike scientology it'll be strange, involve some idiotic devices, and claim everyone who's on earth came from outer space. It'll be completely novel.