A three-year-old moratorium on taxing Internet commerce is set to lapse Oct. 21 without a Congressional vote to extend it.
If the moratorium falls by the wayside, Internet marketers would be required to comply with more than 7,500 individual tax jurisdictions.
A pending Senate bill, sponsored by Sen. Byron Dorgan (D-ND) would have extended the moratorium through Jan. 1, 2006.
During an Oct. 18 debate, Sen. Mike Enzi (R-WY) said, “Particularly since the events of Sept. 11, there has been a drain on resources for cities, towns, counties and states as they have put more security in place, as they have provided for the difficulties that have happened in their states. Most of them rely on a sakes tax to be able to do that.”
Nonetheless, Enzi proposed that the Senate extend the moratorium, and that states endeavor to “simplify their tax system so that the direct marketer of that person doing remote sales has some capability of complying.”
The Direct Marketing Association voiced concern about the Senate
Network
