Feds Urged To Keep Internet Tax-Free

Advocates for a tax-free Internet urged a federal panel Tuesday to recommend that Congress take a hands-off approach, but international officials argued that special treatment for e-commerce makes no sense. The first of 37 proposals examined at a two-day meeting here by the Advisory Commission on Electronic Commerce was the Internet Tax Elimination Act introduced in Congress by Rep. John Kasich, R-Ohio, that would permanently bar sales taxes and other taxes on e-commerce. Permitting states to extend their sales taxes to Internet purchases might reduce the number of online buyers by a quarter and impose a dizzying, costly new compliance burden on businesses large and small, said Chris Wysocki, President of the 50,000-member Small Business Survival Committee. ""Allowing the taxation of e-commerce would jeopardize the growth of the new digital economy and hamper the ability of entrepreneurs across America,"" said Wysocki, testifying on behalf of Kasich's legislation.

Source: AP