Friday, October 12, 2007

Net-tax ban extended

The House Judiciary Committee voted Wednesday to <A HREF="http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=55941">extend a moratorium on state and local taxes on Internet access.</A> The committee approved an amendment to the Internet Tax Freedom Act, offered by Rep. John Conyers Jr. (D-Mich.), to extend the ban four years, until November 1, 2011.

Under the ban, originally passed in 1998 and extended in 2004, the law prevents local governments from taxing "a service that enables users to access content, information, electronic mail, or other services offered over the Internet."

While the White House, Republicans, and tech-state Democrats pushed for making the ban permanent, the committee struck a compromise position, accommodating the concerns of local governments that fear that once they are permanently banned from collecting taxes, cable and telecom operators will try to add telephony Relevant Products/Services, TV, and other currently taxable services.

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