Hungry States Eye Web Sales Taxes, Net Casinos
The gambling tax is just one of a bevy of proposed levies aimed at the wallets of Internet shoppers, gamblers and etailers. A separate bill in Congress would essentially end the sales tax exemption for Internet sales, which states and cities say costs them billions of dollars a year in lost revenue, but saves shoppers serious money.
Meanwhile, the recession-driven drive to tax the Web has also mobilized the giants of ecommerce and their allies in Congress. In an unusual show of bipartisanship, Virginia Democrat Rick Boucher and Texas Republican Lamar Smith have introduced the Digital Goods and Services Tax Fairness Act of 2010, which would make it extremely difficult for states to levy taxes on goods or services purchased over the Web.
One provision of the Boucher-Smith bill would force state legislatures to hold up or down votes every time a state agency attempted to tax anything sold via the Internet. If, for example, California's Board of Equalization decided to tax, say, digital music sales, an action the agency could now take without benefit of enabling legislation, the state legislature would have to pass a law specifically authorizing that measure.
That would, of course, politicize the process, and in the current anti-tax climate even lawmakers who think a tax on a particular item or service might be a good idea would be hard-pressed to vote for it and it could be vetoed by the governor.
