E-Commerce Times Talkback

Re: Taxes Won't Kill E-Commerce, Experts Say
Posted by: Lou Hirsh 2001-11-05 14:26:44

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Despite concerns from federal officials that taxes will stifle growth of the Internet
economy, industry and government observers told the E-Commerce Times that an end to a
moratorium on certain Internet taxes will not mean the extinction of e-commerce. Gartner
Dataquest principal analyst Ron Cowles said that taxes will only
hurt e-commerce companies that "had a bad business plan to begin with."

Re: Taxes Won't Kill E-Commerce, Experts Say
Posted by: Curt 2001-11-06 00:30:07 In reply to: Lou Hirsh

Of course taxes won't kill the industry, but it will *SLOW* it.
Taxes are a tariff on doing business. It retards innovation,
slows growth, reduces activity because less money is available
for spending on stuff. Less money is made to expand capacity
or product quality. Cost of doing business increases because
of the additional accounting needed to just *pay* the tax, in
addition to the tax itself.

It's also a good idea that "special" or "temporary" taxes on a
product or industry are often used by special interests to try
to correct what they see as "unhealthy" activity by other
people. A tax on porn, a tax on gambling, a tax on monetary
transfers through e-gold or paypal, a special "sales" tax on sales
outside of the business' country of incorporation? All very
possible. Even likely.

Does anyone consider *why* taxes on mail-order and catalog
sales were "tax free"? They weren't. There was just no compliance
with voluntary reporting of purchases.

Things will just no longer be "voluntary". Like the income tax.

Curt-

Re: Taxes Won't Kill E-Commerce, Experts Say
Posted by: Amelia 2001-11-05 19:30:46 In reply to: Lou Hirsh

If they are going to start doing that to Internet sales then it needs to be across the board to mortar based businesses. As the law states, if you are selling to someone out of the state in which you have a physical presence, then sales tax does not apply. Companies have been doing this for years. Why single out the online companies?

Also - How about a 2% across the board Federal Tax on any item other than food, clothes, medicine and feminine supplies? That would hit the rich as well as the middle income while not penalizing the poor.

Re: Taxes Won't Kill E-Commerce, Experts Say
Posted by: Tom Sullivan 2001-11-05 18:36:36 In reply to: Lou Hirsh

Forget the Governors, forget the Feds. Isn't it time that the United Nations had independent funding so it can stop going hat-in-hand to Sen. Helms every time it has to pay its bills?
It is also time for the U.N. to start taking a more active, independent role in world governance, but that's another subject.