Senate Passes Bill Making Internet Tax Ban Permanent

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Finally, after 20 long years, the Senate has voted to keep internet access tax free permanently. The bill is on its way to the White House where the President is expected to sign it into law.

Recent attempts to make this ban permanent — by simply striking out the current end date on the latest of the Tax Freedom Act — had stalled in both the House and Senate. And so, as we reported in December, the language was simply tacked on to HR 644, Trade Facilitation and Trade Enforcement Act of 2015, a piece of legislation authorizing funding for Customs and Border Protection, that was deemed likely to pass. Today, it passed the Senate with a 75-20 vote.
 
Wait something good came out of washington? Need to check my reality first.
 
so does this mean if it passes I no longer pay taxes from amazon or if I order something from best buy and pick it up in the store?
 
Bigbacon said:
so does this mean if it passes I no longer pay taxes from amazon or if I order something from best buy and pick it up in the store?
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No, you're likely going to have to pay your state's sales tax. Theoretically, you should have been paying it all along with everything you've ever purchased on the internet.
 
Bigbacon said:
so does this mean if it passes I no longer pay taxes from amazon or if I order something from best buy and pick it up in the store?
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No... it clearly says "internet access tax". So the feds, state, county, or city can't decide to add a tax for you having an internet connection, a tax based on speed, usage, or whatever. If you read the article, it also refers to states that collect a sales tax for internet service, in other words if your sales tax is say.. 8%, you can't get charged an 8% sales tax for your ISP bill(there are states that do this, and there is now a cut-off of 1/30/2020 for them to knock that off).

Sales tax for online purchases is an entirely separate issue.
 
kirbyrj said:
No, you're likely going to have to pay your state's sales tax. Theoretically, you should have been paying it all along with everything you've ever purchased on the internet.
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Uhhh, NO. ...

There has been lawsuit after lawsuit which has re-affirmed that it's illegal for a States to collect tax from out of state residents. It's simply illegal.

This is why the senate has passed this and it will soon be signed into law.

Finally.
 
No taxes, but what about fees! I recall when I had a land line I had no additional taxes but I did have fees. Everything from collecting a fee for poor people/schools and internet, to fees for 911 to fees for "because we're a big company and we'd rather have the sticker price low and we'll gouge you with fees instead to 'build out' our network" fee
 
SixFootDuo said:
Uhhh, NO. ...

There has been lawsuit after lawsuit which has re-affirmed that it's illegal for a States to collect tax from out of state residents. It's simply illegal.

This is why the senate has passed this and it will soon be signed into law.

Finally.
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No. Two totally separate issues. Let's say I live in Texas, I order something on Amazon for $50 that ships from California. I don't pay sales tax for it when I order it. Come tax filing time, I put in that I paid $50 on Amazon, so I owe 8.25% to the state of Texas. I do NOT owe the tax to California that Amazon shipped it from. Get it?

As for this, like the above person stated, this means states can't tax you for accessing the internet in the first place.
 
tetris42 said:
No. Two totally separate issues. Let's say I live in Texas, I order something on Amazon for $50 that ships from California. I don't pay sales tax for it when I order it. Come tax filing time, I put in that I paid $50 on Amazon, so I owe 8.25% to the state of Texas. I do NOT owe the tax to California that Amazon shipped it from. Get it?

As for this, like the above person stated, this means states can't tax you for accessing the internet in the first place.
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Why would you think I don't already understand this?

Btw, Amazon is a really bad example. They have fulfillment centers in almost ever state now.

People are really over thinking and over complicating this along with a healthy dose of misinformation, assumption and ignorance.

Remember the huge Computer Shopper Mags from 20 years ago? Yeah, States and Big Box National Chains have been bitching about this for years and years about Tax Free this, that and whatever. I know, I've been following this subject for years
 
SixFootDuo said:
Why would you think I don't already understand this?

Btw, Amazon is a really bad example. They have fulfillment centers in almost ever state now.

People are really over thinking and over complicating this along with a healthy dose of misinformation, assumption and ignorance.

Remember the huge Computer Shopper Mags from 20 years ago? Yeah, States and Big Box National Chains have been bitching about this for years and years about Tax Free this, that and whatever. I know, I've been following this subject for years
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I think he was more correcting you on the fact that this action has nothing to do with sales tax. It is specifically for "access" taxes.

Sales tax is irrelevant in this case.
 
Now they will just start taxing the ISPs more... which will in turn make the bill from the ISP go up since they of course are going to pass the expense onto the customer.

In the end, the same exact thing will happen, it will just not be on the bill as a tax.
 
This has NOTHING to do with sales tax on online purchases. This means there will continue to be NO tax on your internet fee to your ISP, like Comcast, AT&T etc.

This is in regards to your monthly internet cost, nothing to do with purchasing stuff online.
 
Somebody might want to tell Comcast ... oh wait ... they are part of the "rigged system".
 
That Consumerist article was six paragraphs?!?! Ain't nobody got time for that. TL;DR!:D
 
w4ffles said:
This won't stop Comcast from attaching bullshit fees to your services.
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No it won't, but then again the ISP charging you more for your ISP related things isn't the issue. It's one some idiot mayor, governor, etc, gets the idea that they can raise revenue by putting a tax on internet connectivity because everyone uses it, so why not just slide it in.

Now if they can do this with all forms of communication that'd be great! 911 access fee? Hey how about this, why not just tie that into the general fund, oh wait yeah that's right because that would require a rise in taxes (sales tax or income) and that won't get people reelected.
 
SixFootDuo said:
Uhhh, NO. ...

There has been lawsuit after lawsuit which has re-affirmed that it's illegal for a States to collect tax from out of state residents. It's simply illegal.

This is why the senate has passed this and it will soon be signed into law.

Finally.
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I'll just address this at the source. If you purchase something from Amazon and Amazon or the actual supplier/distributor has a physical presence in your state, you will be charged sales tax. This is why some of us get charged sales taxes for online purchases some of the time, but not all the time. And truth is, some people live in states that just don't have much going on and guess what, they rarely pay sales taxes for online sales ever. I'd understand why some people think no one is being taxed.
 
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