The Internet and Taxes: A Tangled Web
By The Denver Post Editorial Board
06/21/2015A congressional ban on taxing access to the Internet is set to expire on Oct. 1 — meaning even the use of e-mail could be subject to special taxes, and especially now that the Federal Communications Commission has asserted the authority to regulate the Internet as a utility.
If you want to see what such taxes could mean, check out your cellphone bill.
What to do? Why, Congress should approve the Permanent Internet Tax Freedom Act, which would enshrine a ban on state and local access taxes first passed in 1998 during the Clinton administration.
The House approved the legislature earlier this month. Now it’s the Senate’s turn.
But while banning Internet access taxes is an important step in addressing online commerce, it’s by no means the only one. Congress still hasn’t done anything to relieve the increasing squeeze on bricks-and-mortar retailers who compete with online companies that do not collect state and local sales taxes.
The retail playing field needs to be leveled.