Citing factors like the coming presidential election, divisions between a reputedly tax-averse House and a tax-divided Senate, and the still-in-limbo Internet access tax issue, there's a chance that questions about taxing Internet sales won't be answered during 2004, either.
"I would be stunned if there was a vote on this during a presidential election year," Information Technology Association of America associate counsel Bartlett Cleland told the Washington Post. The ITAA has lobbied against what the paper called "a quiet but dogged effort led by state officials and some of their allies in the business community" to convince Congress to let state governments collect taxes on their citizens' Internet purchases.
The Streamlined Sales Tax Project is trying to convince more retailers to collect taxes from customers voluntarily in any states which have regular sales taxes, but the Post said even they think getting Congress to lighten up on states collecting Net sales taxes would be hard during an election year. "There are huge financial incentives for the states to get this done," said spokeswoman Diane Hardt to the paper, "and the states would like to get this money as soon as possible."
An active proposal by Reps. Ernest Istook (R-Oklahoma) and William Delahunt (D-Massachusetts) to green light that plan by Congress is likely to die if it doesn't get to a full vote by 2004's end, the Post said. Istook told the paper he's still optimistic that the bill will pass. But with the House Republican leadership reputed to keep a strong enough anti-tax feeling, the National Retail Federation told the paper, some like themselves who support the bill are hoping the Senate gives states wanting to tax Net sales a more sympathetic reception.
"There's just not as much of an anti-tax crowd in the Senate," said federation vice president Maureen Riehl to the Post. "They don't see this issue like many House Republicans do. The senators seem to understand that what we're talking about here is collection, not a new tax."
