Congress set to issue virtual taxation report in August
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Blog: The Congressional Joint Economic Task Force expects to issue its report on the taxation of virtual goods this August during the Congressional recess.
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Millions of Americans will have to delay filing their tax returns next year until mid-February -- a month later than usual -- because Congress took so long to repair the alternative minimum tax.
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Lawmakers may vote on Internet tax ban, controversial copyright bills before the end of the year.
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The U.S. Senate has passed legislation that would extend a moratorium on Internet access taxes for seven years, giving supporters hope that an extension will be signed into law before the current moratorium expires Nov. 1.The Senate late Thursday passed the seven-year extension on a voice vote. The moratorium would extend the ban on Internet-only taxes, such as access and &quot;bit&quot; taxes on information as it travels through a taxing jurisdiction. The Senate passed an amended version of a House of Representatives bill, the awkwardly named Internet Tax Freedom Act Amendments Act.The House passed a four-year Internet tax moratorium&#160;earlier this month. The two chambers will have to reconcile the two versions of the moratorium before sending the legislation to U.S. President George Bush to be signed.The Senate&#39;s seven-year extension represented a compromise between a group of senators, many of whom opposed an extension in the past, who wanted a four-year ban, and a second group that wanted a permanent ban.Senators calling for a four-year ban, including Thomas Carper, a Delaware Democrat, and Lamar Alexander, a Tennessee Republican, argued that a permanent extension would hurt state and local governments&#39; long-term ability to raise money. Other critics of the ban have raised concerns that a permanent ban would give telecom providers the opportunity to press for tax-exempt status on services such as VOIP (voice over Internet Protocol).&quot;This agreement is a common sense victory both for Internet users and for state and local governments,&quot; Carper and Alexander said in a joint statement. &quot;It continues the moratorium on Internet taxation, avoids unfunded federal mandates on states and cities ... and allows Congress to revisit the issue after seven years.&quot;Supporters of a long-term ban say it encourages broadband adoption, and, by extension, helps drive the U.S. economy.Senator John Sununu, a New Hampshire Republican who pushed for a permanent moratorium, also praised the Senate&#39;s action. The amendment crafted by Sununu and Carper, in addition to extending the ban, made some changes to the House bill that were intended to protect e-mail messages and instant messaging from usage taxes, Sununu said.Some critics, including Senator Ron Wyden, an Oregon Democrat, had raised concerns that a Senate moratorium bill would open up e-mail and instant messaging to taxes.&quot;This bill -- a drastic improvement over what came out of the House -- makes a clear statement that taxes on Internet access are wrong for consumers and wrong for the economy,&quot; Sununu said in a statement. &quot;The Senate has made real progress in the name of Internet tax freedom, passing improved legislation that offers more certainty for this national and global communication network.&quot;Wyden, a long-time tax moratorium supporter, also applauded the Senate vote.The changes approved by the Senate will protect instant messaging and e-mail, including voice and video messaging services, Wyden said in a statement.&quot;These services have sparked revolutions in our ability to communicate, bringing distant grandparents closer to their grandchildren and giving our soldiers in the field a more direct link to home,&quot; he added.
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New York State has revived a plan to tax online purchases using a novel legal theory. Amazon is fighting this move, and national efforts to force it to collect sales tax for all states. It says the current rules are too complex, even though it routinely handles far more complected tasks.
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A contentious measure to gradually move up the time property owners pay their county property taxes will get a second chance this week in the Michigan House.
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Three Republican U.S. senators call on Congress to pass a permanent Internet tax ban before a moratorium expires Nov. 1.
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Action on Friday as the 108th Congress moved toward adjournment, which is expected on Saturday:
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Microsoft will provide the technology that allows visitors to the U.S. Library of Congress (LOC) to first take a virtual tour of historic documents and map out what exhibits they want to see, the two organizations announced Thursday.The project will include the Myloc.gov Web site, to be launched in April, linked to information kiosks at the LOC&#39;s Thomas Jefferson Building in Washington, D.C. Interactive galleries will allow visitors to the Myloc.gov site to view and sometimes interact with items such as a rough draft of the U.S. Declaration of Independence, the Gutenberg Bible, and a 1507 map that first used the word &quot;America.&quot;The new technology is designed to assist people who want to visit the library in person, said John Sampson, director of federal government affairs at Microsoft. Visitors to the Web site will be able to bookmark areas of interest, then use a bar code at the LOC&#39;s information kiosks that will point them to more information in person, he said. Visitors both online and on-site can also engage in a game called Knowledge Quest that sends them searching for clues in the LOC&#39;s art and artifacts, Microsoft said.The library has thought hard about how to bridge the online experience with an in-person visit. Sampson said. The on-site kiosks will help visitors build a custom tour of the library, he said.The library&#39;s plan is to cycle online exhibits in and out but gradually make more information available online, Sampson said. &quot;What they&#39;ve realized is they have a vast collection of amazing, historic artifacts, documents and manuscripts that would take far too long to put on display,&quot; he said. &quot;To say they have great content ... is almost an understatement. It&#39;s the nation&#39;s most prized treasures.&quot;Microsoft is donating software, funding, and training to the project, and in return, the company gets to work with one of the premier libraries in the world, Sampson said.&quot;For us, it&#39;s a unique showcase to show the breadth and the depth of the technology,&quot; said Keith Hurwitz, a platform strategy advisor at Microsoft.Microsoft is helping put the library&#39;s &quot;unparalleled educational resources literally at the fingertips of students and lifelong learners alike, both on site at the Library of Congress and virtually through the Web,&quot; Librarian of Congress James Billington said in a statement. &quot;The Library of Congress and the causes of inspiration and creativity will benefit immensely from this act of generosity and expertise.&quot;Interactive presentation software for kiosks will run on Windows Vista and its Web equivalent, built using Microsoft Silverlight. The project will also use Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 Web content management software.The library&#39;s Exploring the Early Americas&quot; exhibition, which opened Dec. 13, offers a sampling of the new experience.
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WASHINGTON - House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Charles Rangel said he will propose a tax increase on executives at buyout firms and hedge funds to pay for a temporary fix to the alternative minimum tax that lawmakers agree must pass this year.
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If you're lucky enough to own two homes, you may have recently packed up and moved to your summer residence. That's nice, but it can have tax consequences that are anything but a day at the beach.
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Figure out your place on the taxman's sliding scale.
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Private-equity and hedge funds may soon face the taxman.
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Lawmakers say they want to know whether a Veterans Affairs employee was being unfairly blamed for losing veterans&#039; personal information, citing newly disclosed documents showing he had received permission to work on the data from home.
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WASHINGTON - Congress returns from its August recess Tuesday vowing to rush through a bundle of important bills before the November election.
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(InfoWorld) - Three Republican U.S. senators on Thursday called on Congress to pass a permanent Internet tax ban before a moratorium expires Nov. 1. The current Internet tax moratorium, which Congress has extended twice since 1998, bans taxes on Internet access, as well as other taxes unique to the Internet. It's important for Congress to pass a permanent ban soon before state and local governments begin to tax Internet access, said Senator John McCain, an Arizona Republican. Those who wonder what impact Internet taxes could have should look to U.S. telephone and mobile phone bills, where taxes are up to 20 percent of the cost, McCain said. "We cannot allow that to happen to the Internet -- likely the most popular invention since the light bulb," McCain said at a press conference. Several senators, many of them former state governors, have opposed a permanent extension of the tax ban. Earlier this year, Senators Lamar Alexander, a Tennessee Republican, and Tom Carper, a Delaware Democrat, introduced a bill that would narrow the moratorium's definition of Internet access and extend the ban for four years. That bill would close what supporters have called a loophole allowing telecom providers to argue that voice and other services bundled with Internet service shouldn't be taxed. In addition, nine states that were allowed to maintain their Internet taxes would lose a total of up to $120 million a year under a House of Representatives version of the moratorium extension, The National Governors Association has argued. The House version of the moratorium bill strips these states' exemptions. If Congress makes the ban permanent, nothing would stop Internet providers from trying to expand the number of untaxed services, David Quam, director of federal relations for The National Governors Association, said in June. "The temporary provision keeps everyone honest," Quam said then. But Senator John Sununu, a New Hampshire Republican, argued Thursday that a permanent ban is needed. If there's a problem with bundled services, that can be worked out in the bill, he said. The Internet is "critically important to interstate and global commerce," Sununu said. "It makes no sense to have a national and global communications and business network to be subject to taxes by every state, city, and county in the country." The news conference came a day after the American Homeowners Grassroots Alliance, an advocacy group, sent letters to Congress calling on lawmakers to extend the tax ban. New Internet taxes would hurt telecommuters and home-based businesses, the group said. Supporters of a permanent ban say it will help more U.S. residents connect to the Internet, a policy goal of many lawmakers. Asked if they would support another temporary tax ban, the three Republicans rejected that option. "If it's the right thing to do, we ought to make it permanent," said Senator Trent Lott, a Mississippi Republican.
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the computer programs that surreptitiously track people&#39;s online movements -- are steamrolling their way through Congress and a combined proposal could