You gotta love the way that Congress does (or does not do) business.
With less than a week to spare before the expiration of the moratorium on an internet tax (sometimes referred to as the Internet Tax Freedom Act, or ITFA), there is still no plan.
And in a very Congressional sort of way, Senators are trying various methods of getting their version of the bill passed… by such tricks as tacking them onto other bills. My favorite so far is Senator John Sununu’s (R- NH) efforts to make the tax ban permanent by sneaking it onto an Amtrak funding bill. Maybe he thought it was the information rail line instead of the information highway?
Screwier versions of the bill include linking your email service to “incidental” internet connections meaning that your email would only be tax-free if you used the same provider for internet and email (hmm, wonder who’s driving that bus?). Since I am a Comcast subscriber (only by lack of other options), that means that my Mac account, for example, could be taxable. Sure, that makes sense.
Proposals for a vote on the Senate were suggested for today but it’s more likely that there will be an up or down vote next week (note to Congress: November 1 is Thursday and the excuse that you were up all night making Halloween costumes might work for me, but doesn’t for you).
Mensch … I’ve got a soft spot for some aspects of Sununu (his father’s categorical denial of global warming notwithstanding) and now I live in a country that subsidizes radio/TV by taxing ownership of radios/TVs. They now want to tax computers and mobile telephones for this purpose, regardless of reception (non)capability. Just for reference, 3 months “all inclusive” tax is 51,09 EUR, and for radio only 16,56 EUR. Yep, that’s over 200 EUR / year for a private household. In shared flats, each member has to pay individually. If you use your car for business at all, you have to pay the business rate for your car radio.