Sen. Flannel suggests taxing internet connections

[Rob E Dangerously 0]

I don't like this idea at all.

 

http://www.internetnews.com/bus-news/article.php/3406771

 

September 10, 2004

Senator: No Tax Breaks For Broadband

By Roy Mark

 

 

U.S. Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-TN), who has led the fight to allow states to tax Internet connections, said Friday the broadband industry needs no special tax breaks from the federal government.

 

"There were dire predictions that if states were allowed to keep taxing this access that it would become a terrible burden for the industry. Nothing could be further from the truth," Alexander said on the floor of the Senate. "It is not the American way to subsidize such new inventions; it is the American way to let them earn their way forward in the marketplace."

 

Congress let a five-year moratorium on Internet access taxes expire in November of 2003. The moratorium expressly exempted ten states that were already taxing dial-up connections when the legislation went into effect.

 

Last year, the House of Representatives passed legislation calling for a permanent moratorium that eliminates the state exemptions and expands access definitions to include broadband connections. In April, after a long and contentious debate, the Senate approved a four-year ban on connection taxes but grandfathers the ten states covered in the original moratorium.

 

Since then, the Senate and the House have been unable to reconcile their differences.

 

"For now, I would respectfully suggest that the logical course would be for the House of Representatives to adopt the Senate modifications," Alexander said. "This would provide temporary certainty in this policy area, but it is an unsatisfactory long-term solution."

 

Alexander called the Senate bill a "good temporary compromise" that "makes clear that state and local governments can continue to collect taxes on telephone services, including telephone calls made over the Internet."

 

He also called for state and local officials to meet with the telecommunications industry before the opening of the 109th Congress in January to develop a policy framework to assist lawmakers.

 

"If this does not happen, I believe we are in for a long debate with the likelihood of a poor result or even no result," Alexander said. "That would serve no one's purpose."

 

Alexander said both sides have legitimate points to make but he thinks the ultimate debate will be "whether there is any justification for giving additional government subsidies to the high-speed Internet access industry, which so far as I can tell must be already the most heavily subsidized new technology in America today."

 

A spokesperson for Sen. George Allen (R-VA), who has argued for a permanent moratorium on Internet connections, said, "The key reason we have seen such explosive growth is that we have not taxed the Internet."

 

In his floor remarks, Alexander remained adamant that the broadband industry is ready to stand on its own without government help.

 

"High-speed Internet access is a fine, remarkable, admirable new technology, but so was television, so was radio, so was electricity, so was the internal combustion engine," he said. "Americans never got a tax break to buy a TV set and TV manufacturers never got a subsidy, as far as I know, to build them, yet 30 years after they were introduced to the market, almost 90 percent of Americans owned a television set."

 

Alexander said he found it "especially galling" that Congress "would even consider creating this big tax break for Internet access companies and send the bill for that tax break to state and local governments."

 

I mean.. I'm just not sure that this won't screw things up, with customers and all that.

[Guest MikeSC]

This is, hands down, one of the worst ideas out there.

-=Mike

[Guest Salacious Crumb]

I'm not surprised by someone coming up with this idea. Every year someone wants to tax e-mails so this seems like the next step in this stupidity.

[Guest CronoT]

I already pay sales tax on my ISP, which is rather high where I live: 8.25%.

 

WTF should I have to pay Uncle Sam more?

[Silence 0]

God damn it, the U.S. is definitely going straight to hell now, unfortunately.

 

Edit: Wait, does this only apply to high-speed internet? I don't have that yet.

[Guest MikeSC]

Nothing quite beats the ability to kill small, new businesses that use the internet to boost their company. Good one.

 

Lamar, you're an idiot.

-=Mike

[Rob E Dangerously 0]

yeah.. that's another good point.

 

Using sales taxes on Amazon is another bad idea. Although, Amazon hasn't really helped bookstores. But, that's the system for you. They'll adapt to Amazon.

 

They should have renewed the moratorium anyways.

[Guest MikeSC]

yeah.. that's another good point.

 

Using sales taxes on Amazon is another bad idea. Although, Amazon hasn't really helped bookstores. But, that's the system for you. They'll adapt to Amazon.

 

They should have renewed the moratorium anyways.

Make it permanent. One has to stretch MIGHTILY to say that the companies used any gov't aid that makes taxation legitimate.

-=Mike

[kkktookmybabyaway 0]

Shame on you.

 

All you rich fancy pants whining about paying your fair share so you can download porn.

 

Think of the starving children...

[Guest MikeSC]

Shame on you.

 

All you rich fancy pants whining about paying your fair share so you can download porn.

 

Think of the starving children...

I'll share my porn with them --- if they can beat me in a deathmatch.

-=Mike

[kkktookmybabyaway 0]

Or pry it from your warm, sticky palms...