Nearly two decades ago, Congress passed the first Internet Tax Freedom Act, establishing that — with a handful of grandfathered exceptions — local, state, and federal governments couldn’t impose taxes on Internet access. Problem is, that law has had to be renewed over and over, each time with an expiration date. But today, the U.S. Senate finally passed a piece of legislation that would make the tax ban permanent.
Recent attempts to make this ban permanent — by simply striking out the current end date on the latest of the Tax Freedom Act — had stalled in both the House and Senate. And so, as we reported in December, the language was simply tacked on to HR 644, Trade Facilitation and Trade Enforcement Act of 2015, a piece of legislation authorizing funding for Customs and Border Protection, that was deemed likely to pass. Today, it passed the Senate with a 75-20 vote.
“Internet Tax Freedom saves Oregonians and most Americans hundreds of dollars a year in taxes,”writes Oregon Sen. Ron Wyden, a co-author of the original Tax Freedom Act and an outspoken proponent of the permanent ban. “There’s no ban on wireless taxes and Americans pay an average 17 percent (!) tax on their mobile service.”
In addition to removing the end date on the existing tax ban, the revised law puts an end date of June 30, 2020 for those few states that are still collecting sales tax on Internet services.
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They will still collect tax if the internet company has a physical presence in the state.
ReplyDeleteBe just as careful of who you purchase from - sometimes the taxes will overcome the lower prices - especially when you add shipping.
From here, it might be a matter of simply driving north on 13 till you enter DE. If they opened a HomeDepot in the north side of Delmar, the one in North SBY would fold!
The tax is not on internet sales. This is a tax on acessing the internet.
ReplyDelete