CCIA applauds e-government initiatives, which modernize government functions through the Internet and computing. They are an appropriate and important part of good government reinvention and reengineering. E-government, however, is not e-commerce.
CCIA views government efforts to launch competitive e-commerce initiatives with great trepidation. It has worked on Capitol Hill, with the Administration, and in various States to rein in these activities. While we support government efforts to modernize operations, improve taxpayer services, and utilize the tools and technologies of the Information Age, we cannot countenance the government as a competitor in private sector commercial markets. Such activity is antithetical to a successful free market and unfair to American taxpayers and shareholders of private businesses that are forced to compete with publicly-funded government entities for customers. Simply put, the U.S. Government exists to perform essential functions for its citizens; launching commercial enterprise is not one of them.
Free File Alliance
CCIA has continued to support the Free File Alliance, a consortium of private tax preparers in partnership with the Internal Revenue Service that offers online tax preparation services free to most taxpayers. Free File leverages the reach of government with the innovative and efficient expertise of industry, and is precisely the kind of alternative to government competition that CCIA advocates. In addition, the Alliance showed private sector responsiveness in voluntarily eliminating such ancillary offerings as Refund Anticipation Loans from the program in the face of complaints and criticism.