US Senate Extends Internet Tax Ban - Bill Sent to Bush

The United States Senate approved legislation that would extend the moratorium on individual State internet access taxes. In an overwhelming majority vote the Senate added an additional three years onto the approved four year ban from the House of Representative bill which also passed without opposition.

All this was accomplished with only days to go before the current ban on internet access taxes was due to expire.

“By keeping the Internet tax-free and affordable, Congress can encourage Internet use for distance learning, telemedicine, commerce and other important services,” stated Republican Senator Ted Stevens of Alaska. Stevens was voicing the same concerns that many who do business and carry on their normal daily activity over the internet.

The individual States were pushing to have the ban not renewed because they saw this as an extra source of revenue. However, business, especially small business owners fought hard to keep the tax gone from the net for US users citing how much it would hurt them to lose that customer base that may be lost due to the tax hiking the cost of coming on and surfing the net.

Internet Service Providers such as Time Warner, Comcast and AOL also lobbied hard to keep the ban on citing that projected costs increase for the average internet user would skyrocket to as much as 17 percent if the ban were allowed to expire.

Many in Congress, on both sides of the aisle are urging for legislation that would put a permanent ban on such taxes.

The bill has been sent to President Bush for his signature which he is expected to sign without protest.