Internet Service Tax Moritorium Set To Expire 163
nelsonjs writes "On November 1, the ban on taxing Internet service is set to expire. The ban was originally implemented in 1998 in order to encourage the proliferation of Net access. The Senate is considering two competing bills to extend the ban: one would extend it for four years and the other would make the ban permanent. Verizon and Google, usually to be found on opposite sides of any question of Net access, are united in lobbying for the permanent tax ban. If neither passes by November 1, prices for Internet service nationwide could jump by as much as 17 percent, according to ISPs."
No special deal for internet companies (Score:1, Interesting)
Why should the mom-and-pop diner that ekes out a living by selling coffee and donuts be forced to comply with the onerous burden of collecting and remitting taxes on every cup of joe they sell while the multi-billion dollar sale companies like Amazon get a free ride?
Long time ago it was considered too difficult for small internet start ups to follow the complex local taxes and exempt categories for all the 25,000 taxing jurisdictions in the country. That argument is no longer valid. The internet companies should be able to calculate the local tax and exempt categories based on the deliver address. Or they can float an internet startup to provide the service to other companies.
Fight for lower taxes across the board, fight for better spending efficiency by the government. Slashdot readers are tech savvy people who can avoid sales taxes by ordering online. If you fight to keep the special treatment of internet companies over brick-and-mortar companies, you are no better than the vested special interests that you often criticize.
What is the tax for? (Score:5, Interesting)
Does anyone know what these taxes are for?
Clinton was a better Republican than Bush (Score:2, Interesting)
Sigh. Yes I am being sarcastic.
Fiscally, the only thing that Bush has done that could be considered Republican was to lower the capital gains tax. However, Clinton himself lowered the capital gains tax, but also kept spending in check, balanced the budget, promoted a sound dollar. If Hillary would actually be as good fiscally as her husband was, I'd say the budget would be in pretty good shape.
On the other hand, Bush is afflicted with LBJ syndrome. He's spends more than a drunk in a whorehouse.
Re:Extend it...DUH! (Score:2, Interesting)
Well why tax anything? Why tax income, or sales, or gasoline, or any of the other million categories of items that are taxed? The bottom line is, the government needs money, and it's probably a lot easier to get it by nickel-and-diming people with taxes on everything they pay for than by raising income taxes or some other high-profile tax. Of course this simplistically assumes that all tax revenue just goes into a big pile to be used for anything, but...
Also, in response to the other part of your post, I thought that the main complaint about Internet access in Europe was higher prices. I'm spoiled by being on the edge of an urban area, where I get 10Mb "unlimited" broadband for $25 a month. I know many areas of the country can't get broadband at all, or just super-expensive options from only one provider, but claiming that the Internet is faster and cheaper in Europe than the US is a claim I'd need some numbers to back up before I believed it. On average you might have us beat, but I think our best options probably match up pretty well.