E-COMMERCE: NEW DEBATE ON INTERNET TAXES.

The task is a complex one since there are more than 6,400 levels of taxes on consumption in the United States by virtue of the multitude of local and regional taxes. The explosive growth of e-commerce provides increasingly high visibility to the discussions of the Panel, split between those in favour of exemption, led by Governor James Gilmore of Virginia, and those in favour of taxing transactions effected on the Internet, among them, Governor Michael Levitt of Utah. According to remarks made by Panel Chairman Governor Gilmore made to the Washington Post on December 13: "E-commerce is an engine of our economy, and we should not burden it down with new taxes". The champions of Internet tax exemption find support for their position in the findings of a University of Chicago study that taxing on-line purchases would reduce the amount of such sales by more than 30% and the number of buyers by 25%. What is at stake for conventional merchants is significant since their customers, already enticed by the prospect of being able to shop 24 hours a day from the comfort of their living room, also...