Ready For Internet Taxes?
In this press release yesterday, the National Taxpayers Union (NTU) “sounded the alarm over quiet, behind-the-scenes efforts to force Internet businesses of all sizes to collect billions of dollars in brand new sales taxes – a scheme NTU once identified as a possibility in a paper called “Ten Tax Hike Threats in t he 111th Congress.”
NTU said, “The plan would irrevocably tear down the wall that protects the Internet from oppressive taxation, a wall that NTU has fought to fortify for years,” and went on to explain:
“Congressional sources say that introduction of federal legislation to implement the “Streamlined Sales Tax Project” (SSTP) could happen as early as this week. This comes in response to ongoing deliberation surrounding the issue of tax policy toward the Internet and the SSTP, a campaign that would allow states to collect sales taxes on transactions made by residents beyond their borders. States need Congress’s blessing for SSTP because of previous court rulings that governments cannot force firms within their jurisdiction to collect taxes on sales made to out-of-state customers.”
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“As many states continue to face record budget shortfalls, it is not surprising that they have turned to taxing online commerce in a desperate attempt to pay for their profligate spending. State and local government officials are leaning hard on Members of Congress to pass the bill to provide them new avenues into taxpayer wallets. They are particularly focusing on convincing Republicans to join the effort, in the hopes that bipartisan support of the tax hike will improve its prospects.”
Well said. Very well said!