14 DAY TRIAL // A bill that would permanently ban all Internet access taxes has made it through the US House of Representatives yesterday, and will be subjected to vote by the US Senate in the following days.
Even if the bill has a bigger opposition in the Senate, the Permanent Internet Tax Freedom Act, as it was dubbed, will prevent local and state legislators to tax their citizens for Internet access or Internet-related services.
A temporary form of this bill has been in place as a tax moratorium since 1998, which is set to expire on October 1, this year. This moratorium has been the sole reason why, by now, taxes weren't put in place for tidbits as bandwidth size, email access, or e-commerce transactions.
In no US state has there ever been an Internet-related tax until now, except four states: Ohio, Tennessee, Texas, and Wisconsin. Because these states had Internet taxation in place before the moratorium was issued, they were allowed to continue with their current laws under a grandfather clause.
As a result of the huge funds these Internet access taxes brought them, they will also be the main adversaries of the Permanent Internet Tax Freedom Act when it is debated on the Senate floor. With US states getting poorer and poorer, it is expected for their governing bodies to be in a constant search for new revenue streams.
The Permanent Internet Tax Freedom Act is expected to pass, but don't be surprised if it doesn't
Outside the legislators themselves, we also have classic retailers, which will look to put a dent in the profits of their pure-online competitors, by spiking up their prices via an extra taxation layer.
What can oppose them is the Internet itself, which many perceive to be a God-given right (we're looking at you Finland) and has the support of the population itself. Most senators tend to love their job, and when facing stiff public opinion on a certain topic, they tend to listen to their voters more than to lobbying groups.
Tech companies will also fight to keep Internet access as free of taxes as possible, especially since most of their monetization schemes rely on the Internet's ease of access and availability.