[macintologist]

Net taxes could arrive by this fall | CNET News.com

The era of tax-free e-mail, Internet shopping and broadband connections could end this fall, if recent proposals in the U.S. Congress prove successful.

State and local governments this week resumed a push to lobby Congress for far-reaching changes on two different fronts: gaining the ability to impose sales taxes on Net shopping, and being able to levy new monthly taxes on DSL and other connections. One senator is even predicting taxes on e-mail.

Here's my feeling: just leave the internet tax regime the way it's always been, non existant! Why don't they concentrate on cutting their spending by streamlining government bureacracies? Hell I guess it's just easier to leech off of others hard work. I'm writing my representative and senator and letting them know how I feel. I recommend you do the same thing.

You can track one of the proposed internet tax bills here

S. 34: A bill to promote simplification and fairness in the administration and collection of sales and use taxes (GovTrack.us)

[Big Mac]

Get used to the idea - it will likely happen eventually, unfortunately. Government always wants to wet its beak.

[Chuckit]

Originally Posted by macintologist 

Here's my feeling: just leave the internet tax regime the way it's always been, non existant! Why don't they concentrate on cutting their spending by streamlining government bureacracies?

Government can only expand or collapse; it never contracts.

[Dakarʒ]

Originally Posted by Big Mac 

Government always wants to wet its beak.

Thank you, Don Fanucci.

[MacosNerd]

This does not bode well and it could very well be overly complicated but then what hasn't come out of congress that wasn't complicated.

[BlueSky]

Let's kill all the lawyers.

[Cold Warrior]

With taxes come new monitoring regimes, ostensibly to enforce compliance, but more broadly to allow Big Brother yet another foot in the door.

[shifuimam]

Good ol' Democrats, wanting to tax the hell out of everything instead of lowering the deficit by not spending as much.

Directly from the CNET article:

Originally Posted by CNET

But with Democrats now in control of both chambers of Congress, the political dynamic appears to have shifted in favor of the pro-tax advocates and their allies on Capitol Hill. The NetChoice coalition, which counts as members eBay, Yahoo and the Electronic Retailing Association and opposes the sales tax plan, fears that the partisan shift will spell trouble.

It does suck that cities are losing sales tax because of an increase in online purchasing, but taxing the internet as a whole isn't going to solve it - implementing sales tax on online purchases wouldn't kill the economy. Imposing a higher tax on internet connections (we're already taxed there) is silly. Taxes on email is even more ridiculous. Email costs the government nothing. Postal mail has to cost something, in order to support the US Postal Service. Email, on the other hand, costs the government nothing.

We'll see what happens...

[Dakarʒ]

Originally Posted by shifuimam 

instead of lowering the deficit by not spending as much.

Okay, you don't get to play that card after the past 6 years of Republican spending.

[imitchellg5]

The hampstor® is above intarweebs taxes.

[ghporter]

In actuality, what Congress is considering is allowing STATES to tax Internet connections. BIG difference. Still stupid as sand, but it's more a reaction to 50 states begging and pleading to be able to suckle on this supposedly very full teat.

[Rumor]

I'm already taxed.

I have a 6mb down line from AT&T (don't get me started on the crap upload) which requires I have home service from them (which I never use).

The base service is $10.69 but the taxes are an additional $6.66 which makes a total of $17.35 on top of the $34.99 for the DSL.

That is a 39% tax on a base line just to have DSL.

[macintologist]

It's amazing how the government can just leech off of other's hard work and productivity.

[torsoboy]

As an owner of an online shopping cart provider I have no idea how the people using our shopping cart will be able to manage paying taxes to all 50 states. If they do this, I hope they come up with some standard way of handling it... too much overhead (or any at all) will make people just ignore it I think.

[Cold Warrior]

I know a couple states now that levy it as excise tax. Basically if you buy something from outside the state and bring it in to the state (where you reside) to use it, and you can't prove you paid sales tax in another state when you got it (in person or online), then you must pay an excise tax, usually equal to state sales tax. This is something one files in their annual state tax return.

I've seen this with vehicles as well. Say you move into a state and go to register your 2004 Mustang. Well, if you can't prove you paid sales tax when you bought it in your previous state, then your new state will require you to pay the excise tax before you can register and get a tag for your vehicle.

[tiger]

Next thing you know they'll be taxing keyboard inputs.

[climber]

Originally Posted by Dakarʒ 

Okay, you don't get to play that card after the past 6 years of Republican spending.

Democrat or Republican makes little difference. Both have been horribly bad at reducing spending to reduce the national debt.

[typoon]

Congress never saw a tax it didn't like. The internet is getting too free and too big for them and the only way they can rein in part of this truest form of capitalism is to slap some kind of tax on it.