With four bills to permanently ban new taxes on Internet transactions already pending in the Senate, Rep. Christopher Cox (R-CA) has introduced the first measure in the House to keep the Internet tax-free.
Cox’s Internet Tax Nondiscrimination Act (HR -1675) is the same as the four bills that are pending in the Senate. They are: S-245 and S-589 sponsored by Sen. Robert Smith (R-NH); S-664, sponsored by Senators Judd Gregg (R-NH) and Herb Kohl (D-WI), and S-777, sponsored by Senator George Allen (R-VA).
With the three-year-old moratorium in new Internet taxes set to expire this Oct. 21, the Gregg-Kohl bill would prohibit states from taxing mail-order sales in addition to sales made over the telephone or other direct response methods.
The Gregg-Kohl bill conflicts with the Internet Tax Moratorium and Equity Act (S-512) sponsored by Senator Byron Dorgan (D-ND), which would give states the authority to tax remote sales, whether by mail, telephone, over the Internet, or any other direct response vehicle.
All five bills seeking to permanently ban new taxes on Internet transactions permanent conflict with four other measures, two each in the Senate and House, that would extend the moratorium.
While one of those bills pending in the House, HR-1410 sponsored by Rep. Ernest Istook (R-OK) would extend the Internet tax moratorium to Dec. 31, 2005, the other three, two in the Senate, S-246, also sponsored by Smith; S-288 cosponsored by Senators Ron Wyden (D-OR) and Patrick Leahy (R-VT) and one in the House, HR-1552, also sponsored by Cox, would lengthen the existing no-tax moratorium to Dec. 31, 2006.
So far various House and Senate committees have scheduled no hearings on all nine measures, which are under review.
Network
