US Legislators Propose Global Internet Tax Freedom

Computergram International, Oct 4, 1999

Two United States legislators have called for their Internet Tax Freedom Act to be made global. House policy chairman Christopher Cox (R-CA) and Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR) have introduced legislation which would rally US government support to a moratorium on any and all taxes on internet commerce.

The US- centric Internet Tax Freedom Act (ITFA), sponsored by Cox and Wyden, was signed into law on October 21, 1998. It created the national commission currently investigating internet tax issues under the supervision of Virginia governor Jim Gilmore. Now the bipartisan pair want to extend the ITFA to the international arena. They want the World Trade Organization (WTO) to impose a permanent moratorium on internet taxation at its November meeting in Seattle. None of the WTO's 130 member states have such taxes today, but the moratorium would prevent them from being levied in future. Cox and Wyden also want to see a ban on "multiple, discriminatory or special" taxes on the net, and a permanent ban on "bit taxes" like the one proposed by the United Nations in July 1999.