Verizon: Ban on Internet access tax should be permanent

[September 22, 2015]  By Josh Peterson

WASHINGTON, D.C. — With days left before a temporary ban on Internet access taxes expires, the nation’s largest wireless carrier recently vocalized its support for making that ban permanent.

“It’s time for the Senate to approve the Internet Tax Freedom Forever Act (S. 431), just as the House overwhelmingly approved the Permanent Internet Tax Freedom Act (H.R.235),” Verizon wrote Wednesday on its public policy blog.

“In doing so, Congress can bring some much-needed certainty to consumers’ pocketbooks while ensuring the Internet remains a robust hub for innovation for our economy, as well as a resource for our society’s needs in education, health care, even entertainment,” said the company.

RELATED: Lobbying ramps up for permanent Internet access tax ban
 

A basic majority of 51 senators is supporting the Internet Tax Freedom Forever Act, which would permanently ban state and local Internet access taxes, but that’s not a guarantee the bill will pass, despite the House version — the Permanent Internet Tax Freedom Act — passing by voice vote in June.

At the beginning of the month, conservatives began ramping up support for ITFFA, which has languished in a Senate committee since February. Advocates for the retail industry, on the other hand, want Congress to support the Marketplace Fairness Act, which would enable state and local governments to tax online purchases outside of their political borders.

RELATED: Internet tax battle revived in Congress

Chicago, clamoring for revenue to assuage its budgetary woes, recently became the target of a conservative legal group, the Liberty Justice Center, for placing its 9 percent “amusement tax” on residents’ streaming subscriptions for services such as Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime, Spotify and XBox Live.

The group filed a lawsuit stating that authority to determine whether the “amusement tax” could be applied to streaming services fell on the city council, not the city comptroller.

Disclosure: Ed McFadden, Verizon Communications’ vice president of external communications, is a board member of Watchdog.org’s parent organization, the Franklin Center for Government & Public Integrity.