The Direct Marketing Association has blasted a bill that would cut short the Internet access tax moratorium, while linking it to the general remote sales tax issue.
Sen. Byron Dorgan (D-ND), who has tried several times to get sales tax legislation passed, introduced the bill on Thursday. It would extend the moratorium only until June 30, 2002.
“Any discussion of the controversial sales tax debate should be saved for an appropriate time when there is no pressure of a looming Oct. 21 deadline for the extension,” said H. Robert Wientzen, president of the DMA, in a statement. “At this time, Congress should pass an extension of two to four years of the moratorium and not link it to other divisive issues.”
Frank Julian, tax counsel for Federated Department Stores, Inc., added in a statement that the bill “flies in the face of a permanent, clean extension referred by the House Commercial and Administrative Law Subcommittee in August that resolved solely the internet access moratorium issue and separate the remote sales tax question from the moratorium.”
Julian added, “The House bill rightly created two distinct legislative agendas that are not held hostage to one another.”
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