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U.S. Congress Poised To Vote On Internet Tax Ban

Posted by CowboyNeal on from the wallets-thankful dept.

jangobongo writes "'After more than a year of leaving the threat of new state- and city-levied taxes looming over Internet access providers and online merchants, Congress is poised to reimpose a moratorium on taxing Internet access,' according to eWeek. The House had approved a permanent moratorium while the Senate had approved a temporary ban. Members of the House are pushing to compromise and to vote today on the Senate's approach. President Bush is expected to sign the legislation when it is passed."

7 of 409 comments (clear)

  1. Lets hope so by Realistic_Dragon · · Score: 5, Funny

    If they tax the internet the real geeks can go back to fido/bbs and we can let the useless languish in commercialised hell.

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    Beep beep.
  2. RTFA by Greg01851 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    "Congress is poised to reimpose a moratorium on taxing Internet access" Internet Access... not all internet purchases... i.e. your bill from your ISP will be a bit lower, unless you use AOHell :)

  3. current tally: by bersl2 · · Score: 5, Funny

    good things Congress has done this week: 1
    bad things Congress has done this week: a lot more

    That's better than most weeks...

  4. NO TAXATION! by sciguy125 · · Score: 5, Insightful
    Personally, I don't think that they should be allowed to tax any communications. Actually, I take that back. They can tax it if they only use the money to pay for it.

    Taxing communications is like taxing air. We all need to communicate with others the same way we all need to breath. Why not just tax people on the streets for talking to each other?

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    GE/S/P a- e++ y-- r-- s:++ d+ h! X+++ t++ C+ P+ L++ E W++ w M-- V? PS+ P+
  5. Re:Excellent idea by MorboNixon · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Perhaps your argument isn't so much that we're overtaxed, but that the proceeds from taxes aren't being spent wisely?

    I agree with both points. I think we are overtaxed, but I think the far larger problem is that congress does not spend the money appropriately.

  6. For all those not reading the article... by Cryptnotic · · Score: 5, Informative

    ...this is about the federal government preventing the states from levying taxes on internet access. States currently tax telephone services, and some states would also like to tax internet services. The federal government currently forbids this, however they might stop forbidding it.

    This does not mean that the federal government would tax internet services. That may or may not be within their power. That is a different constitutional argument though.

    This does not mean that your state would charge taxes on internet services. It would still be up to your state legislature and governor to decide on such a tax, approve it, and implement it.

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    My other first post is car post.
  7. Re:try england by Afrosheen · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Canada seems a little different in that they can see their money going to good causes. Causes like a public health program, extremely clean cities, environmental controls, etc. Again, the main beef most of us Americans have is that we see ourselves being taxed more all the time but there's no tangible result. Quality of life just isn't improving, Social Security is still getting raped, the highways are no better, etc. Show me where that extra penny sales tax is going, in concrete form, and I won't complain if I feel it's a worthy improvement.