Congress Approves Seven-Year Internet-Tax Ban

[OhioChick]

Source: Information Week

The measure now goes to President Bush, who is expected to sign it in time to meet Thursday's deadline.
October 30, 2007 04:30 PM


It's not easy to get the partisan Congress to vote unanimously on anything these days, but apparently both parties can agree that Internet access should not be taxed.

With only two days to spare, the U.S. House of Representatives voted 402-0 on Tuesday morning to extend the moratorium on state and local Internet taxes. The move was applauded by Internet service providers, wireless carriers, and other Web companies that said that prices for Web access could shoot up as much as 17% without it.

Originally passed as the 1998 Internet Tax Freedom Act, the ban was extended to Nov. 1, 2007 as the Internet Tax Nondiscrimination Act of 2004. The new bill prohibits "bit taxes" and the like through 2014.

Republican lawmakers including Rep. John Sununu of New Hampshire, the author of today's bill, have called for a permanent ban on taxing Internet traffic, but Congress is apparently not quite ready for such a radically revenue refusal. The House had earlier approved a four-year version of the tax relief. The Senate passed a bill calling for a seven-year ban last week, so the measure now goes to President Bush, who is expected to sign it in time to meet Thursday's deadline.



Read more: http://www.informationweek.com/news/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=202800352

[CaliforniaPeggy]

1. That's very good news...

Nice to see that the Congress can come together once in a while!

Once we get a Dem President in there, then we can make it permanent...

I hope.

[msongs]

2. prices will shoot up anyway and corporations will pocket the increases nt

[Sukie1941]

3. Where does congress have the right

to regulate or not regulate the internet??????

[NeedleCast]

4. They're not regulating it

They're saying that state/local governments can't assess a tax on it's usage. I think this is a very good thing. Hope it becomes permanent.

[melm00se]

5. I am torn on this

on one hand it's one less tax.

OTOH, it creates an artificial competitive advantage for a web based company, in some cases as high as 9%, which disadvantages the local business.

[Al Federfer]

8. Local businesses can be on the web too. n/t

[The2ndWheel]

6. Why?

Everything else comes with a tax. Why not internet access?

Easier to deal with databasing information with internet access because everything on it is dealt with in numbers? If you tax the access, fewer people might use it/aspects of it, thus less information gathering potential?

It just seems odd. Someone somewhere always wants to tax this and that for whatever reason. Yet nobody in power wants to tax access to the internet, not even the wealthy internet users.

[Al Federfer]

9. More taxes = more State power = more oppression and war. n/t

[shanti]

7. * is "expected" to sign?

he's petulant enough not to...

[rodeodance]

10. bout time!!