While I can certainly wax on endlessly about things fauna, there are concepts even more abstract that are the domain of this blog: Magickal Realism is, after all, an indie business, and indie businesses are affected by things involving money, and taxes, and marketing. Because I work with things more abstract and regulated these will often merge, but for now, here’s a topic I want to discuss up front because it affects everyone in the US who purchases items on the Internet: the Internet tax ban that is ending on November 1, 2007. That’s right - we have a little less than one month to definitely enjoy tax-free purchases on the Internet (that you know you’re supposed to be reporting anyway, right?)
Says the Wall Street Journal:
Pro-Internet lawmakers, led by Oregon Democrat Ron Wyden and New Hampshire Republican John Sununu, had assembled the votes to replace Mr. Carper’s pseudo-moratorium with their strong, permanent tax ban. If Mr. Inouye keeps trying to push the phony moratorium, Mr. Wyden tells us that he now believes he can move the real deal through the Finance Committee, which also enjoys jurisdiction. The Wyden-Sununu permanent ban would give investors a strong incentive to fund broadband investment that will empower consumers with a faster Internet.
Clearly, there’s bipartisan support on either side of this bill - for Internet tax and Internet no tax. Being a woman of flagrant self-interest, I clearly favor the no-tax. Our tax dollars already support the Internet; the infrastructure comes from the military invention of the ARPAnet (not ALL military spending is bad…). While I don’t know how the Internet infrastructure is funded these days, I’m reasonably certain it still is - the Internet has effectively given us a second universe without having to leave the planet, after all.
Still, in the event of an Internet tax, it won’t be the end of the world. PayPal already has auto-tax settings, and it wouldn’t be long before Google Checkout set them up. Still, I’d jolly well better know what my money’s going for - it’s not like broadband is easily available to everyone, or even most.
- Image from http://bluecollarrepublican.com [↩]
