During its first full day, the 110th, Democratic-controlled Congress got to work on new legislation and one of the first tech-related bills introduced was The Permanent Internet Tax Freedom Act of 2007. The bill, sponsored by Sens. Ron Wyden (D-OR), John McCain (R-AZ) and John Sununu (R-NH) aims to permanently extend an existing ban on state and local taxes on Internet access.
The moratorium on taxes for dial-up or broadband Internet access services, which was first enacted in 1998, is set to expire this November. Cable operators and phone companies, of course, praised the bill.
Other tech-tax developments yesterday: Sens. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and John Ensign (R-NV) introduced a measure to repeal a federal excise tax that applies to standalone local phone service subscriptions, a tax that has already been repealed for bundled services Sen. Ted Stevens (R-AK), meanwhile, went in the opposite direction and introduced a bill that would require broadband service providers to pay into the universal service fund, payments that would no doubt be recouped by new surcharges applied to customers’ bills.
Cynthia Brumfield at 9:00 AM|Comments(0)
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