Cool
Per this:
The U.S. House of Representatives voted on Wednesday to make permanent a ban on Internet use taxes and to require nine states to repeal existing taxes on access fees.
While I think the decision may violate states’ rights, every time a tax is repealed an angel gets its wings. However:
The tax ban could run into some hurdles in the Senate, where some lawmakers want to include a promise that states will be able to tax online sales if enough of them simplify their tax codes.
September 17th, 2003 at 4:52 pm
Ahem . . . I suspect that this may be one of the RARE appearances of proper Commerce Clause execution. State’s rights, if valid, do in fact take a back seat in this rare instance.
September 17th, 2003 at 6:43 pm
While I’m opposed to an internet USE tax, I’m not at all opposed to having state sales taxes apply to Internet sales.
September 18th, 2003 at 12:54 am
Ditto what tgirsch wrote.
In the mid- to late-90s I supported an Internet sales tax exemption as a way of promoting the growth of e-commerce. But I think we’ve moved beyond the need for that now and it really is an unfair tax policy which hurts the states and local merchants.
September 18th, 2003 at 8:10 am
Umm, (sales, other) taxes are fine within a State. When they extend beyond the boundries of a State they become a regulation of commerce between States.
This ban does nothing to prevent States from charging sales taxes in the same ways that they have in the past, even on interweb transactions.
The House, on a voice vote, passed the Internet Tax Nondiscrimination Act, which would permanently prohibit taxing jurisdictions in the U.S. from levying such taxes as e-mail taxes, bandwidth taxes, or bit taxes.
Too bad this policy is has not been expanded to a prohabition of tolls, by States, on interstate highways like I-95. If you are not familiar, as soon as you get north of VA on I-95, an interstate highway that we ALL have already paid for, the various States charge a toll on all vehicles.
September 18th, 2003 at 10:07 am
I have no objections to paying State sales taxes on internet sales (outside my own state) if:
1) The tax charged is for the state in which the item is sold (it would be a huge burden to small businesses to tax by where the buyer lives).
2) Regular (snail) mail-order companies are also required to charge sales tax to people in other states, which they have never done.
September 18th, 2003 at 10:17 am
But if i order online and pay sales tax to a state i don’t live in, am i being taxed without representation?
September 18th, 2003 at 12:45 pm
But if i order online and pay sales tax to a state i don’t live in, am i being taxed without representation?
For purposes of the transaction, you (theoretically) come under the jurisdiction of the vendor’s state when you conduct business with the seller, since that’s the law that governs its business.
September 18th, 2003 at 1:03 pm
But in that jurisdiction, i don’t vote.
September 18th, 2003 at 9:29 pm
Academic anyway. Can’t do it that way. You’d have to pay sales tax in the state where you LIVE. Which, constitutional concerns aside, I wouldn’t mind requiring everyone to pay that. The effect of not charging sales tax for mail-order/internet sales is encouraging buying out-of-state rather than supporting your local businesses.
September 18th, 2003 at 9:29 pm
Academic anyway. Can’t do it that way. You’d have to pay sales tax in the state where you LIVE. Which, constitutional concerns aside, I wouldn’t mind requiring everyone to pay that. The effect of not charging sales tax for mail-order/internet sales is encouraging buying out-of-state rather than supporting your local businesses.