(Washington, DC) — On the eve of tomorrow’s scheduled vote before the Senate Commerce Committee, the Computer & Communications Industry Association (CCIA) stated its unyielding support for the “Internet Tax Freedom Act” (S. 442).
The measure sponsored by Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR) and Congressman Christopher Cox (R-CA) would establish a national policy against state and local government interference with interstate commerce on the Internet and halt additional state and local taxes aimed exclusively at the multi-million dollars already being spent in online commerce transactions.
In a letter to the Committee praising the legislation, CCIA Executive Vice President Glenn Davidson said the bill would grant the Executive Branch “time to develop — in consultation with state and local governments, businesses and consumers — rational and comprehensive policy recommendations on the taxation of online commerce as well as to seek international agreements making the Internet a duty- and trade barrier-free zone.
“By continuing the current trend of imposing a multitude of different and sometimes conflicting, state and local taxes — not to mention foreign duties — on electronic commerce from imposing tremendous burdens on companies seeking to do commerce online, they also risk stifling the potential of the Internet as a place to do business.”
CCIA believes that this bill would have immediate advantages for U.S. consumers, manufacturers and small businesses and would contribute to shrinking the U.S. trade deficit, and most significantly, hasten the technological and economic development of the Internet as a source of communication and commerce.
CCIA is an association of computer and communications industry firms, as represented by their most senior executives. Small, medium and large in size, these companies represent a broad, cross-section of the industry, employing over a half million workers and generating annual revenues beyond 200 billion dollars.