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from the no-taxation-without-something-or-other dept.
A U.S. House of Representatives committee has approved a bill that would permanently extend a moratorium on broadband access and Internet-specific taxes that Congress has temporarily extended three times over the past 16 years. The House Judiciary Committee's 30-4 vote Wednesday sends the bill to the full House for a vote. The bill would also have to pass the Senate before becoming law. The bill, called the Permanent Internet Tax Freedom Act [PITFA], would also remove past exemptions for seven states, including Texas and Ohio, that had Internet taxes in place before the moratorium first passed in 1998.
A permanent tax moratorium on Internet-only taxes will allow the Internet to continue to drive the U.S. economy and serve "as the greatest gateway to knowledge and engine of self improvement that has ever existed," said Representative Bob Goodlatte, a Virginia Republican and committee chairman. The current Internet tax moratorium expires Nov. 1. "If the moratorium is not renewed, the potential tax burden on consumers will be substantial," with access tax rates that would likely exceed 10 percent, Goodlatte said.
(Score: 2) by frojack on Saturday June 21 2014, @12:53AM
Regressive (as applied to sales/vat taxes) is a myth, one born of practiced self delusion, but really fed by "soak it to the rich" jealousy, and a Utopian desire for equal outcome, regardless of effort.
Rich pay far far more in sales/vat tax, simply because they spend vastly more, employ vastly more, and pay far more income taxes on top of sales/vat tax.
Poor get government subsidies that more than make up for sale/vat taxes, making their tax burden much lower and, in most cases, negative.
Yet people arguing the regressive tax nonsense, without the benefit of a single economics class, continue ignoring the subsidies, trot out the old "percentage of income" nonsense time after time, even after these facts have been pointed out them them.
Its a specious argument.
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.