Posted on 11/04/2003 6:27:25 AM PST by GirlyGirl2003
Congresswoman goes on offensive over fear of e-mail tax
By RICHARD POWELSON, powelsonr@shns.com
October 31, 2003
WASHINGTON - U.S. Rep. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., warned Thursday that governments might start taxing every e-mail transmission if Congress does not quickly renew a federal ban on Internet-access taxes expiring Saturday.
The National Governors Association and Tennessee Sen. Lamar Alexander's staff, however, said they knew of no interest in governments taxing e-mails.
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Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., has been working on a compromise to make Alexander and various states happy while continuing the ban in many states on taxing monthly Internet access services, such as AOL.
Tennessee, which had a tax applied to Internet access originating inside the state before the federal ban started in 1998, receives about $18 million a year in such tax revenue.
The state of Tennessee also is concerned that $360 million in annual sales taxes on other telecommunications - land-line phones, wireless phones and cable TV - could be lost under the current wording of the Senate bill, so Alexander has been trying to block the bill until it is revised.
Frist spokesman Nick Smith said he was not aware of any governments wanting to tax each e-mail. "We have not been contacted by any state government indicating that they would expand their desire to tax at this time. But allowing the moratorium to expire could potentially open the door for new taxes on the Internet."
Blackburn's warning came in a written statement sent to newspapers for publication as an op-ed piece, and she reiterated it in a subsequent interview.
Blackburn said she was concerned that if Congress does not renew the ban on Internet access taxes, local areas could tax an e-mail each time it passed from one computer server to another. She urged the Senate to quickly pass the House-passed ban on Internet access taxes.
"We can chuckle about (an e-mail tax) now, but we won't be laughing if America's thousands of taxing jurisdictions actually start taxing e-mail," Blackburn said. "And that is exactly what could happen if we do not extend this moratorium by Friday night."
Alexander spokeswoman Alexia Poe said the senator respects Blackburn and her views. "In his opinion, this is not an issue about taxing e-mails. That's not part of the debate. He's been very clear that his concerns are the federal government and Washington telling Tennessee how to do its business. He has not heard of any government trying to tax emails."
NGA spokesman David Quam said he has heard of no state interested in taxing e-mails. But he said states are interested in keeping millions of dollars in current revenues on various telecommunications services that they fear are at risk if the Senate bill is not revised.
Tennessee's state commissioner of revenue, Loren Chumley, said she does not understand why some in Congress are trying to give large telecommunications companies a tax break, cut state revenues and say it is "something good for consumers."
Said Chumley, "At a time when states are in the greatest fiscal crisis of all time, why is Congress looking at pre-empting states taxing things that are already on their books?"
If Congress misses the Saturday deadline to renew the ban on Internet access taxes, it could pass a ban later that is retroactive to Saturday, Quam and members of Congress said, so states would be unlikely to rush to new taxes.
Washington bureau staff writer Richard Powelson may be contacted at 202-408-2727.
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Copyright 2003, Knoxville News-Sentinel Co. |
Well get ready because there are plans in the works in Texas to tax every email that passes through a server in this state even if neither the sender of receiver are here. The politicians have been waiting for this for at least a year.
Good. The volume of spam alone will pay off the National Debt. Let's see them collect it from spammers...Hahaha!
Just click on the above and you'll see even more info on this subject hot off the hard drives.
I am glad to know that the writer of the article got it wrong. As to the above comment, however, I would assert that "all things are possible."
I, personally, would never underestimate a governmental entity's willingness, nay eargerness, to attempt to separate you and I from our hard-earned income and/or accumulated wealth in any way they possibly can.
I suspect some of the framers of the Federal Constitution may well have said that "No one but an idiot would believe we're going to tax income."
"if we pass this income tax, soon we'll be taxing at a 5% rate!"... spoken in the US Senate in 1913.
Never underestimate the hunger gov't has for our money. If there's an opening, some will take advantage...jmho.
These are EXACTLY the same questions posed when debating the implementation of a tax on income here in the US. Hence the IRS.
The federal ban on internet taxes expired Oct. 31 due to Senate stonewalling. IIRC, Cantwell (D-Wash) Conrad (D-N.D), Voinovich (R-Ohio) and another R were responsible.
"No one but an idiot would believe we're going to tax e-mails."
"if we pass this income tax, soon we'll be taxing at a 5% rate!"... spoken in the US Senate in 1913.
Never underestimate the hunger gov't has for our money. If there's an opening, some will take advantage...jmho.
31 posted on 11/04/2003 9:08 AM CST by Principled
Some actually trust govenment to do the right thing with regards to taxation. You have to wonder how long they've been alive.
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