Taxing Your E-mail [TAXING FREEREPUBLIC!]

The Wall Street Journal | October 29, 2003 | The Wall Street Journal Editorial

[Monk Dimittis]

Ruined my day to see this in the paper. It won't be just e-mail. It won't be just Free Republic.

Named good guys: (need support)
Rep. Chris Cox, CA (r)
Sen Ron Wyden, OR (d)
Sen George Allen, va (r)


Named bad guys: (need to be protested)
George Voinivich, OH
Lamar Alexander, TN
Sen Maria Cantwell, WA (d)
Kent Conrad, ND (d)
Mark Dayton, MN (d)
Gov Bob Taft, OH

I suggest an all-out movement to pass the bill that makes the provision of the "Internet Tax Freedom Act" permanent.

[Ff--150]

Get off your grasses and on to the horn and call those congresscritters--make them listen!

[AppyPappy]

Link to the source please.

[CyberCowboy777]

Washington State Ping List

Sen Maria Cantwell is ours!

Be sure to let her know how you feel.

[Egon]

Minnesota Democrat Mark Dayton suggested "looking at some very, very small charge for every e-mail sent."

We knew this guy was bad news as soon as he bought himself into office.

Dang it! Why is it always the people that don't know how to turn on a computer, much less send an email message...

[Gunslingr3]

I suggest an all-out movement to pass the bill that makes the provision of the "Internet Tax Freedom Act" permanent.

Better yet, and longer term, how would you word an amendment to the Constitution? How is the internet a means of communication, that should be explicitly protected by a ban on taxes? Think in terms of how later generations will try and poke holes in it. Seems like a smart way to protect capital in the U.S. in the future.

[Monk Dimittis]

My source was a paper copy. How do I link to that?

[Eala]

Sen Maria Cantwell is ours! Be sure to let her know how you feel.

Hm. What's a compelling argument other than "I'm mad at you!"? That any Internet tax will be known around here as a "Cantwell Tax"...? Ideas, please...?

[Eala]

More information over here.

[laurav]

I think much of the WSJ is not available free online, so most of us would not be able to link to it, only subscribers.

[Semper Paratus]

The end of the Golden Age of Communication is in sight.

[Cobra64]

Minnesota Democrat Mark Dayton suggested "looking at some very, very small charge for every e-mail sent."

"very small charge"... Bullshiit. That will last about 3 nanoseconds.

[AbsoluteJustice]

Doesn't surprise me in the least bit. Republicrats along with their bed-fellows Demicans want your money anyway they can get it. How else would they support their socialist entitlement programs?

The parties are one in the same they both spend YOUR money frivously and now when they have no more they want more.

Both parties are sickening.

[CyberCowboy777]

It may well be that for the baaing public the same old arguments against taxation will work.

With millions buying products on the internet I highly doubt this will go over well with most Americans.

Internet allows commerce on a scale never before seen and it will be vital to the overall recovery of the economy. It is the rebirth of the mom and pop shop as well as the convince of box store accessible to everyone.

As a side note I recently bought a part I needed and could not find anywhere locally or nationally in Singapore!

For Maria? Simply the fact that this will get public attention may swing her - she knows the numbers of Americans that purchase online and they overwhelmingly dislike any idea of taxation.

[Teacher317]

Minnesota Democrat Mark Dayton suggested "looking at some very, very small charge for every e-mail sent."

They left off the last part of his statement...

Minnesota Democrat Mark Dayton suggested "looking at some very, very small charge for every e-mail sent that we can make into a bigger charge through yet another new and unaccountable bureaucracy. More Federal revenue, more Federal jobs, more Federal power, and nothing can get pinned on elected officials, so their jobs continue to be secure... Everybody wins!"

[RightWhale]

FreeRepublic is non-profit, isn't it?

[happydogdesign]

Even more here and also check out

STOP INTERNET TAXATION!

Senator Voinovich says:
"Stick your snout in the public trough and never look up!"

[not_apathetic_anymore]

I just got off the phone with some Staffer in Cantwell's DC office.

He says that Cantwell does not support internet taxation and supports the bill banning taxes. I then said the report I read said that she was holding up voting on the bill which is a slightly different issue than not supporting the bill. He also said she was not doing that.

I asked from where the bad information came. They were trying to chase that down.

On final recap he said she absolutely supported the bill to ban taxes and was not stonewalling the vote.

One can only hope he was telling the truth. Though I may not have parsed the question in exactly the proper way...

[Snardius]

Democrats Maria Cantwell of Washington

Odd that Cantwell would support a tax on internet traffic when she made her fortune as an exec for Real Audio...but then, she is a Democrat.

[Arthalion]

At a Senate hearing on spam in May, Minnesota Democrat Mark Dayton suggested "looking at some very, very small charge for every e-mail sent."

As a matter of practicality, taxing email is impossible. I run my own email server, on my own domain, for only my use, and I don't get charged anything for it. When I send an email, no commerce has taken place and no taxeable exchange of goods or services has resulted...therefore no legal basis for taxation has occured.

The same can be said for corporate email: If I send an email to the guy in the next cubicle, is that taxeable? If so, how is sending an email any different that picking up my non-public, non taxeable PBX connected telephone and calling the guy down the hall? What if I send that email to the guy in our Denver office, who is also using our internal email servers? What if he reads it using the web interface from an AOL connected web-bistro in downtown New York? If he forwards it to his personal account, will the email be double taxed? What if he BCC's it to 50 of his closest friends?

An email tax is simply unworkeable. Even if someone did manage to draft a 50,000 page law that managed to cover every eventuality, it would get quickly shot down on first amendment issues and equal protection issues.