The
e-Freedom Coalition, a collection of anti-tax and consumer
groups has presented its plan to limit taxes on e-commerce to
the US Advisory Commission on Electronic Commerce (ACEC) The key
recommendation of the proposal is that the US Government's current
three-year ban on new "discriminatory" e-commerce or Internet
access taxes should be made permanent.
The e-Freedom Coalition proposal
also recommended:
- a permanentl ban on electronic
commerce taxes;
- a permanent ban on Internet access
taxes, including the prevention of "Internet tolls" by prohibiting
governments from charging more than the cost of telecommunications
cabling installation along rights-of-way;
- that the government clarify where
companies are required to pay taxes on e-commerce (under the
present laws a company can be taxed by two different states
for one transaction);
- county and municipal governments
adopt a "pro-growth" formula to adjust sales and use taxes for
Internet-related companies with "a substantial physical presence
within the taxing jurisdiction" to help generate the revenue
that communities claim is being lost from e-commerce's erosion
of storefront sales;
- the repeal of the 3 percent federal
excise tax on telecommunications to encourage e-commerce infrastructure
development;
- the extension of discriminatory
taxation protections to telecommunications;
- the abolition of government-imposed
fees for the installation of telecommunications cables;
- a prohibition on governments from
collecting individual consumer transaction data.
The e-Freedom Coalition's proposal
has received the backing of ACEC Commissioners Dean Andal and
Stan Sokul and US Congress Housing Budget Committee chairman John
Kasich (who recently launched his own bill in the Congress for
a permanent extension to the existing 3-year internet tax moratorium).
The e-Freedom Coalition includes groups such as Americans for
Tax Reform, Citizens Against Government Waste, Citizens for a
Sound Economy, the Competitive Enterprise Institute, Consumer
Alert, the Heritage Foundation, the National Taxpayers Union,
the Progress and Freedom Foundation, and the Washington Institute
Foundation.
With e-commerce expected to
net $1.3 trillion a year by 2003, whatever the ACEC recommends
to Congress will be hotly debated as state and local governments
try to protect traditional revenue streams. State and local government
officials have argued to the ACEC that the tax prohibitions discriminate
against traditional 'bricks and mortar' businesses and will ultimately
result in less money in state coffers for education, law enforcement,
and other services. It is believed that groups such as The National
Governors Association, the U.S. Conference of Mayors are working
on a uniform state law package to deal with internet taxation
that is expected to be ready by December this year.