Efforts again are in progress to impose an internet sales tax and at some point such efforts probably will be successful because of the political strength of the revenue grab's proponents.
However, such taxation will transgress on two principles to which this country used to adhere:
First, the tax revenues will flow to the governments in states in which the out-of-state sellers have no presence and therefore such sellers will be paying for governmental expenditures from which they derive no benefits.
Second, because they are not present in the states to which they will be paying taxes, the tax paying entity will have no representation and therefore no political voice in the states to which their tax payments will be going.
In the days before the U.S. became the land of the servile and the home of the grasping and greedy freeloader, Americans believed taxation without representation to be tyranny. But that was before politicians fell in love with hotel, airport, car rental and other taxes that hit travelers -- people residing elsewhere who therefore could not vote against those imposing and constantly increasing such taxes.
For a detailed look at the current sneaky effort to rush the internet tax into law, see this report.
No comments:
Post a Comment