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The mission statement of the Streamlined Sales Tax Project is to “develop measures to design, test and implement a sales
and use tax system that radically simplifies sales and use taxes.”
This seems logical enough, until you consider
that this well-intentioned measure violates Interstate Commerce, ignores Supreme Court precedent and further intrudes on
consumer privacy.
NoInternetTax.org is against efforts that require states to: limit the frequency of tax rate
changes; that mandate the use of a single tax form for all participating states; and that encourages a flat national or
state tax rate, resulting in a defacto national sales tax.
The Supreme Court has twice previously ruled that a
state has no right to force an out-of-state retailer with no physical presence (nexus) in their state to collect and remit
taxes. To do so creates an undue burden that is in violation of Interstate Commerce.
Additionally, SSTP mandates
that a “trusted third party” or government body monitor and audit Internet purchases to ensure that “lost” taxes are collected
from consumers.
The question for consumers is: “Do you want the government monitoring your Internet purchases and
storing your private financial and shopping habits in a database?”
Forty-five of our nation’s governors, including
Governor John Engler of Michigan, support SSTP.
More on the Streamlined Sales Tax Project can be found at:
http://www.geocities.com/streamlined2000/
If you want to know what your state is doing with the SSTP, click here:
http://208.237.129.206/sline/statestatus.pdf
“Ron Kirk, the mayor of Dallas, makes it sound as if basic public services will collapse if he can’t tax Internet sales.
’When you are sitting at home in your virtual world and ... a fire breaks out, do you want us to send a virtual fire truck
or a real big red fire truck?’ The guy is shameless!”
Reprinted from The Boston Globe, “Tax Internet sales?
No way!” May 21, 2001.
Wednesday May 30 12:52 PM ET
AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - A set of global trade rules governing Web commerce is urgently
needed, the incoming chief of the World Trade Organization (news - web sites) said on Wednesday.
``E-commerce is
such a growing activity that there is a need for a clear-cut framework of rules,’’ said Supachai Panitchpakdi, Thailand’s
former deputy prime minister, who will become director-general of the WTO next year.
``I think this is something
that the ministerial conference in Doha (Qatar) this year should make some progress on,’’ Supachai told Reuters at an
Europe-Asia business conference in Amsterdam.
WTO members will discuss in July the possibility of launching a new
trade round at a Qatar ministerial meeting in November. An effort to start a new trade round in Seattle in 1999 collapsed
in disarray.
A WTO working group is examining the implications of Web commerce on a new round of trade talks,
Supachai said in a speech.
The working group in Geneva is looking at what elements of the 1992 Uruguay round trade
pact will need to be revised to take account of the surge in e-commerce, and is also examining Internet-linked issues not
covered at all in the WTO system.
A key issue will be taxation of commerce over the Internet, but many others also
need to be thrashed out. A temporary moratorium on taxing trade over the Web is still in force, but a comprehensive global
policy needs to be agreed upon, he said.
Other examples of issues that need to be dealt with are international payment
systems and privacy considerations.
Representative Ernest J. Istook has introduced H.R. 1410, the Internet Tax Moratorium and Equity Act, which would extend the
current moratorium through December 15, 2005, allowing previously grandfathered taxes on the Internet to remain in effect.
The bill authorizes States to enter into an Interstate Sales and Use Tax Compact, to uniform and streamline sales and use
taxes. Additionally, the bill calls for a joint comprehensive study to determine the cost of collecting and remitting State
and local taxes under such a system.
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Threats