more feedback on cybertax from T&F

[David Farber <farber () central cis upenn edu>]

From: pbachman () skidmore edu (peter bachman)
Subject: more feedback on cybertax from T&F
To: sea-list () panix com
Date: Wed, 22 Sep 93 19:19:48 EDT


Michael Hill of AP writes in the Albany Times Union on the cybertax on Sept.
22.


Some interesting points are raised, many of which were already posted
to SEA-LIST and TELXCH-L. To me the tone of the article indicates that
the tax increase *may be* on the way out, as far as computer communications
goes.


I personally contacted the representative from NYTEL last week to
gather information and the the word was that the law was specifically
meant to deal with 900 numbers.Applying it to cyberspace was not
only difficult to enforce from the point of view of what constituted
information and what was entertainment, but also some form of oral
information would also have to be taxed, such as a stock quote!


Tax and Finance Commissioner James Wetzler apparently has talked to
the Legislature regarding changing the surcharge and was quoted in the
article as saying these types of taxes are generally imposed as a
discouragement on a particular activity and "I don't know if there's
any special rationale for imposing a tax on computer bulletin boards"


Other people mentioned in the article included tax department
spokesman Karl Felsen, Prodigy's Sandra Weiss, Marino's spokesman,
Chris McKenna and various aides to Assembly Speaker Saul Weprin who
are mentioned in the article as saying that they are willing to "iron
out" and "tinker" with the tax to get rid of problems regarding the
tax.


Readers are advised to read the article in full. We may be witnessing
a bit of cyber history here in the information revolution so don't
drop your floppies into the Hudson quite yet!