No Internet taxes but VoIP is excluded

A U.S. House of Representatives committee has voted to extend an Internet tax moratorium for four years, but declined to make the tax ban permanent, as some lawmakers had advocated.The House Judiciary Committee on Wednesday voted unanimously to approve an amendment to the Internet Tax Freedom Act. The amendment, offered by committee Chairman John Conyers Jr., a Michigan Democrat, would extend the ban on Internet access taxes until Nov. 1, 2011.

The current ban on access and other taxes unique to the Internet expires this November. Congress first passed the Internet tax moratorium in 1998. A group of lawmakers, many of them Republicans, have called for a permanent ban on Internet taxes. The ban is needed to preserve the growth of the Internet, they argued.

The Conyers amendment would allow nine states with Internet access taxes to continue them. It would also narrow the definition of Internet access, excluding services such as VoIP from the tax ban.

Initial source.

Tags: Internet Tax Freedom Act, voip, Internet tax moratorium, Internet tax