Technologies that were unknown a few years ago are now widespread. Most recently, the explosive growth of telecommunication technology, which includes the Internet, has enabled people to communicate and exchange information on an unprecedented scale. These new technologies bring with them social changes and new ways of doing business, such as Internet commerce.
Some people believe that the Internet may be the way most people in advanced industrialized societies will engage in commmerce in the future. Some people, however, speculated that the traditional corporation could become obsolete in certain cases. Particularly, tax authorities worry that their revenues may plunge as more and more commerce moves to the Internet. They are concerned that Internet commerce will deplete state and local government revenue by reducing sales and use taxes.
This report examines the perpectives on an Internet tax and Internet commerce. The report chooses three important policy issues: the sales and use tax impact of Internet commerce, nexus, and the debates relating to privacy in Internet commerce. It tries to give several reasons why the Internet tax moratorium should be extended and how the governments prepare for sales taxes on e-commerce after the moratorium.
