From the Austin Business Journal:
Congress must decide soon whether to extend the moratorium on Internet access
taxes, but eBay is more concerned about legislation that would force Web
merchants to collect sales taxes on out-of-state purchases.
The moratorium, which prohibits states and localities from taxing Internet
access, expires Nov. 1. It went into effect in 1998. Many business groups are
lobbying Congress to make the moratorium permanent, but the National Governors
Association favors a four-year extension, so that Congress can revisit the issue
and "review any unintended consequences for consumers, industry or the states"...
Under current law, sales taxes are charged only if the Internet retailer has
a physical presence in the purchaser's state...
"Brick-and-mortar retailers are currently required to collect sales taxes
while many online and catalog retailers are not," the federation wrote Congress.
"This is not only fundamentally unfair to Main Street retailers, but it is
costing states and localities billions in lost revenue."
Ted Cohen, an eBay vice president who led the company's lobbying day on
Capitol Hill, says small brick-and-mortar stores are being hurt by big-box
retailers, not Internet sellers.
"It's not eBay that put them out of business," Cohen says.
The push to require Internet sales tax collections is "about large retailers
who want to crush small business," he says...
In short, share your views on Internet taxes with your Congressional
representatives. After all, they are supposed to represent YOU.
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