Yesterday the U.S. House of Representatives passed the permanent Internet Tax Freedom Act (ITFA) by a voice vote. ITFA, which was first passed into law in 1998, bars federal, state and local governments from taxing Internet access and from imposing discriminatory Internet-only taxes. This is incredibly important as ITFA is one of the laws that allows internet commerce to exist. ITFA must be renewed periodically, and was done so yesterday by the House.
Yesterday the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Regulatory Reform, Commercial and Antitrust Law held a hearing on state nexus and taxation issues. Although the point of the hearing was not to discuss the Marketplace Fairness Act (MFA) specifically, tax collection in particular was a frequent topic of discussion amongst all participants – both Members and witnesses. Not surprisingly, participants sympathetic to big retail and money hungry states continue
As part of eBay’s ongoing efforts to support World Trade Month, last week eBay CEO Designee Devin Wenig and U.S. Secretary of Commerce Penny Pritzker co-authored an opinion piece entitled “The rise of the micro-multinational, and why it matters to the U.S.
Each year an increasing number of big ticket companies, venues and concert promoters attempt to impose unfair, anti-consumer and anti-competitive ticket practices for live events across the U.S. These actions often include attempts to pass anti-competitive ticket legislation at the state level. Fans, small businesses and nonprofits are being taken advantage of by a variety of policies and proposed legislation, including those that:
As May brings about both National Small Business Week and World Trade Month, we wanted to alert you to activity in the U.S. Congress on important trade legislation that could benefit small businesses that export online. Both the U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate recently began debate on two bipartisan trade bills that would modernize the United States trade agenda and open up new opportunities for U.S. small businesses in the global marketplace.