Internet tax ban meets resistance in Senate

INTERNET TAX BAN MEETS RESISTANCE IN SENATE
[SOURCE: InfoWorld, AUTHOR: Grant Gross, IDG News Service]
Several U.S. senators questioned whether to extend a ban on access and other Internet-only taxes, at least in their current form, during a Senate Commerce Committee hearing Wednesday. The current moratorium on Internet taxes expires on Nov. 1. Representatives of Verizon and the National Taxpayer Union Foundation called on Congress to make the tax ban permanent, but several senators said the current ban could allow Internet service providers to package other products with access and exempt them from taxes. The current ban should be extended temporarily, "if at all," said Committee Chairman Daniel Inouye (D-Hawaii). On Tuesday, three groups representing state government officials called for a more limited, temporary ban. Several other senators said they would support a temporary ban on Internet access taxes, but only if language in the moratorium is changed to make clear that states are allowed to tax services packaged with access, including music and movies and television over Internet Protocol, called IPTV. When the moratorium was last debated in Congress in 2004, a group of senators, many of whom are former state government officials, raised concerns that the Internet tax ban could cost states billions of dollars.
http://www.infoworld.com/article/07/05/23/Internet-tax-ban-meets-resista...

* Internet Access Tax Moratorium: Revenue Impacts Will Vary by State
[SOURCE: US Government Accountability Office, AUTHOR: James R. White, Director, Strategic Issues]
GAO testimony at the Senate Commerce Committee hearing. The agency made no recommendation in the testimony.
http://www.gao.gov/cgi-bin/getrpt?GAO-07-896T
Highlights - http://www.gao.gov/highlights/d07896thigh.pdf