Point, Click, and Tax

Wall Street Journal ^ | 11/13/03 | WSJ Editors

[walden]

The effort to make permanent a temporary ban on Internet-access taxes has stalled in the Republican-controlled Senate. But don't blame the Democrats.

Fault instead two GOP Senators, Lamar Alexander of Tennessee and George Voinovich of Ohio. Both are using procedural legerdemain to prevent a vote on the Internet Tax Nondiscrimination Act, a provision that not only keeps the taxman away from your AOL or EarthLink account but also bans "multiple or discriminatory" levies on electronic commerce. A temporary Internet tax moratorium, in place for the past five years, expired on November 1. If Congress doesn't act to extend it before winter recess, don't be surprised by a yuletide e-mail tax.

[walden]

This WSJ piece is subscription-only, so I removed a bunch, but the critical parts are here, including which Senators are a problem on this. We need to get busy and contact these people. Anyone with a ping list, please use it!

[walden]

Would you like to use your ping list on this internet-tax issue?

[MeekOneGOP]

Point, Click, and Tax
(Internet Tax)

Please let me know if you want ON or OFF my General Interest ping list!. . .don't be shy.

[MeekOneGOP]

[Orangedog]

Don't waste your time emailing Voinabitch. That RINO never saw a tax (or gun control bill) he didn't fall in love with. Concentrate on Frist. He could end this if he wanted to.

[Sewell]

Why would Frist want to end this? Judging from all the knee-jerking coming from my fellow Conservatives, you'd think Alexander's is a pro-tax stance. It isn't, but you guys aren't listening to what he's actually saying.

Instead, I'd like to hear Freepers explain why they are suddenly for continued Federal intrusion into our lives and Federal control trumping a state's rights issue. Let the state decide. This is where we citizens have the best chance to stop additional taxation. If you don't believe me, remember the Tennessee Tax Revolts of 2000, 2001 and 2002.

[Orangedog]

Judging from all the knee-jerking coming from my fellow Conservatives, you'd think Alexander's is a pro-tax stance. It isn't, but you guys aren't listening to what he's actually saying.

Alexander is out of my state and therefore out of my ability to vote against in the coming election. My problem is with the tax and spend weenie voinabitch. I'll vote for Jerry Springer before I vote for that thing again.

I have a problem with any polititian who wants to clear the way for me to pay so much as one penny more in taxes than I do now. None of those limp-wristed RINO's in Washington give a damn about the Constitution, so whenever they want to ignore it to keep me from having to pay another tax, so be it.

Maybe you don't live in a state infested with dumb-ass soccer moms who will step over the dead and dying to vote to raise everyone's taxes whenever they are told that it's "...for the children" but I do.

[Sewell]

Maybe you don't live in a state infested with dumb-ass soccer moms who will step over the dead and dying to vote to raise everyone's taxes whenever they are told that it's "...for the children" but I do.

Is there a state that isn't infested with 'em? Not Tennessee, that's for sure. That's my state, and not once, not twice, but three times we scared the pols from getting away with using the "it's for the children" Bovine Sewage to justify an income tax. We had a lot of soccer moms on the anti-tax side in those tax revolts, too. Still, until I'm convinced otherwise - and I'm open to hear logical reasons (as opposed to merely anti-tax rhetoric) as to why this is not a state's rights issue - I'm on Alexander's side on this one.

[Orangedog]

I think there are plenty of reasonable arguments to be made against the states doing as they please with taxing the Internet. First and foremost is that the Internet without a doubt a creature of interstate commerce. In fact, I believe that a case could be made that Congress would have to explicitly give the states permission to tax the Internet since the power to regulate interstate commerce belongs solely to the federal government. Extending the law that recently expired would have saved a lot of money in lawyer fees from the lawsuits that will come from this.

[Sewell]

I think there are two separate issues here: access to the internet, and purchases made on the internet.

Access is a local issue. Except for the rare case where a consumer's ISP is located in another state, then access is not interstate commerce. As such it does not fall into the Federal jurisdiction. That is Alexander's point. This is no different from taxes you pay on telephone access.

As for purchases made via the internet, you are right. It is interstate commerce for the most part, and should remain forbidden by the Feds. I see no difference in that and catalog sales, so unless the company you are purchasing from has a physical location in your state, no sales tax should be charged.

I'm not sure that legal fees should ever be a consideration in law-making. That would stifle the creation of legitimate laws as well as bad law.

[Orangedog]

We are already taxed on access. If you have dial up service, DSL or access via cable modem, you are already paying taxes for the priviliage of having a phone or cable tv. The Internet was designed, developed and paid for by the US military. This isn't like a turnpike build by a state and then the state charges fees (re: taxes) for access. I don't see where the states would be able to put toll gates on freeway entrances and exits to Interstate 71, or to access a military network that was turned over to the private sector. It would seem to me that the states would need the explicit permission of the federal government (either by act of Congress or federal regulatory agency) to tax Internet access, especially since the states are already taxing your means to access it. If there were some new way to access it that was independant of current means (RF, satellite, etc) I could see that, but then they would still have jurisdiction problems because the feds own the airwaves too.

[international american]

Thanks for a most interesting post.
Now for the Maalox.....