Interstate Sales Tax

Just now, by a vote of 69-27, the U.S. Senate has passed yet another tax hike. Instead of curbing spending, they have decided that raising taxes on the Internet is the best way to pay the debt. Well, they are wrong.

The bill aims to enforce a sales and use tax on businesses that rely on the Internet to reach their customers. While the specifics of the bill are about as long as Obamacare, here are the top three problems with the Internet sales tax:

• Online businesses would be responsible for collecting and filing their sales tax fromcustomers that don’t reside in their state.

• Businesses would be forced to use software that will generate a database to keep track of their tax paying customers. This also puts their customers at risk should the database be hacked, spilling millions of sensitive information records into the wrong hands.

• States might no longer seek to lower their taxes for business friendly environments. They’d be encouraged to raise their taxes in order to collect tax money from other states, thus hurting potential business development.

If you’re scratching your head wondering how the Senate has managed to support a bill that could put a halt to business development, increases taxes, and further regulates our last free market, the Internet, we are too.