Nothing puts fear and loathing in Las Vegas or Wall Street like the mention
of tax.
The stocks of Internet commerce companies especially, including Amazon.com,
Onsale,
Egghead.com, CDnow and N2K are vulnerable to possible backlash if the U.S.
or any
other government starts applying taxation to transactions.
Meanwhile, Internet service providers could be hurting if a usage tax
gets applied to
them as the huge telephone giants beg their Washington contacts to levy the
old-world tariffs in the monopoly-free environment of the World Wide Web.
In this special Internet Stock Report we gathered some of our notable
readers together and asked:
|
"Should
governments tax Internet commerce?" |
"Governments can tax whatever they want, but if
they tax Internet
commerce they will lose out. Looking ahead, I don’t know exactly how we
make the
transition, but I believe that in the long run we will probably end up
taxing real estate
since that’s the main thing that can’t move from one physical
jurisdiction to another.
Now if you mean *Net* governments, they probably *will*
tax Net
commerce – with "taxes" otherwise known as transaction fees,
commissions,
memberships, subscriptions . . .
FWIW, still looking ahead: The element of choice is key, and I want to
make sure that my
browser vendor, for example, does not tax me, directly or indirectly,
especially if I have
no choice of browser.
–
Esther Dyson, Internet & PC luminary |
"What I am certain about is that I do think they
will want to!
Assuming e-commerce grows to projections, U.S. state governments will
push for this at the
very least to gain some additional "revenue sharing" with the
U.S. federal
government.
On the broader scale of the world, national governments will probably
be forced to apply
taxation merely at the corporate level and not at the
transactional level. There will be too much technology change and
loopholes to plug to
properly determine, tax, and deposit e-commerce transactions.
I believe that governments should not tax e-commerce transactions as it
will drastically
affect their nation’s ability to move into the "new economy."
-George Zachary, venture capitalist, Mohr Davidow
Ventures
|
"I do believe that governments should tax Internet commerce,
just as
they should any other commerce. The question for me is should they
tax at the point of origin or destination?
The implications are profound in the marketshare to be gained or
lost by organizations
moving offshore to do business, an inevitability in the Internet.
Instant wealth will be
created in countries that have the lowest tax rate. At the same time,
one would not expect
the same level of government protection from fraud in highly unregulated
environments.
Confidence is key to making commerce happen, so we should strive to
set some boundaries
and taxes should help to pay for this (in a perfect world). Bottom
line, I’m choking as I
say that governments should tax commerce (not to support the billion
dollar screwdriver
business, but legitimate commercial transactions).
-David Takata, stock analyst, Gruntal & Co.
Investment Bank
|
Steve Harmon’s PowerPacket is brought
to you by Mecklermedia’s
InternetNews.com
& is a special edition of Internet Stock Report. If your business
is the Web,
Internet Stock Report is a must read. Spread the word and join
thousands of other readers
including Microsoft’s Bill Gates, Yahoo’s Jerry Yang, Hummer Winblad’s
Ann Winblad, AOL’s
Ted Leonsis and more! |
