I don’t think we should think of this in terms of it’s a natural inevitability. We should fight this tooth and nail.
The internet was originally established as a tax free zone. There’s no way in hell we should surrender that distinction. And since taxes have not been collected, it hasn’t really be a taxed zone yet, in practice.
We need to scream bloody murder about this.
You said — The internet was originally established as a tax free zone. There’s no way in hell we should surrender that distinction. And since taxes have not been collected, it hasn’t really be a taxed zone yet, in practice.”
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No, you’re wrong there..., the Internet was never established as a tax-free zone. *Originally* the Internet was established as a “business-free” zone. I should know since I’ve been on it from the National Science Foundation days... when you could be *ejected* from the Internet, have your account closed and be knocked offline for *merely* trying to sell an old worn out book online.
If you were caught so much as advertising *anything* for sale on the Internet (i.e., not “taxes” but *anything for sale*) you would be kicked offline and you would not be able to get an account.
The key was “doing business” and “for sale” online. That was *absolutely forbidden* on the Internet — and *not* taxes.
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Now, move forward to when the government turned over the Internet to “business interests” and then it became “okay” to sell something online (about the mid-90s). States were definitely going to get their cut of sale taxes. However, the Federal Government wanted to give “online businesses” the chance to “start up” as much as possible. It was then agreed to allow a “tax moratorium” for online sales taxes. This was *always* from the very beginning, a temporary moratorium. It was *never* something that was said to be permanent.
It was always stated that it was to give online businesses a chance to get a foothold and become established and then the sales tax moratorium would be lifted.
Well, that time is pretty close to now, because online businesses are quite prevalent and well-established at this time.
As I said — the Internet was *never* started as a “tax-free” entity... That’s a complete misunderstanding of the entire process and displays a bad understanding of the facts...
I was there and I remember it all and that’s how it all happened...
“I don’t think we should think of this in terms of it’s a natural inevitability. We should fight this tooth and nail.
The internet was originally established as a tax free zone. There’s no way in hell we should surrender that distinction. And since taxes have not been collected, it hasn’t really be a taxed zone yet, in practice.
We need to scream bloody murder about this.”
Agreed. I’ll be contacting my RINO congress critter about this on Monday and will encourage others to do the same.