Taxes on Internet access would be permanently banned under a bipartisan agreement in Congress reached Wednesday.
In a version of a bill on customs and border policy announced Wednesday, congressional negotiators included a provision that would permanently ban the Internet tax.
A bipartisan group of lawmakers from both chambers agreed on the legislation in conference meetings Wednesday, meaning that the bill soon will be headed to President Obama’s desk.
Among other measures relating to border security, customs and the U.S. Customs and Border Protection, the legislation would make permanent a ban on taxing Internet services that has been extended on a temporary basis since 1998.
Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon, the ranking Democrat on the Finance Committee and one of the negotiators, welcomed the permanent extension of the ban he first advanced in 1998.
People in his state would “soon finally be free from the threat of hundreds of dollars in new taxes each year, just to access the Internet,” Wyden said.
“Today online commerce is responsible for hundreds of thousands of jobs,” he added. “In my view, when you have something that works, that has stood the test of time, you ought to make it permanent.”
The ban, which was set to expire this month, prevents states from taxing access by taxing bandwidth use or specific digital products such as email. It is separate from proposed legislation that would allow states to levy taxes on Internet sales to consumers in their states by companies with no presence in that state.
Under the legislation advanced Wednesday, states that had instituted Internet taxes before the 1998 ban and were grandfathered in would have until 2020 to phase out those taxes. Those states are Hawaii, New Mexico, North Dakota, Ohio, South Dakota, Texas and Wisconsin.
