
Chairman
The Honorable James S. Gilmore,
III Governor Commonwealth of Virginia
Members
Mr. Dean F. Andal Chairman California Board of
Equalization
Mr. C. Michael Armstrong Chairman and
CEO, AT&T
Mr. Joseph H. Guttentag Senior Advisor to the Assistant
Secretary for Tax Policy U.S. Department of the
Treasury
The Honorable Paul C. Harris Sr. Delegate Virginia House
of Delegates
The Honorable Delna Jones Commissioner Washington
County, Oregon
The Honorable Ron Kirk Mayor City of Dallas
The Honorable Michael O. Leavitt Governor State of
Utah
Mr. Gene N. Lebrun President (1997-1999) National
Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws
The Honorable Gary Locke Governor State of
Washington
Mr. Grover Norquist President Americans for Tax
Reform
Mr. Robert Novick General Counsel U.S. Trade
Representative
Mr. Richard Parsons President Time Warner, Inc.
Mr. Andrew Pincus General Counsel U.S. Department of
Commerce
Mr. Robert Pittman President & Chief Operating
Officer America Online
Mr. David Pottruck President & co-Chief Executive
Officer Charles Schwab and Company
Mr. John W. Sidgmore Vice Chairman MCI WorldCom and
Chairman UUNET
Mr. Stanley Sokul Independent Consultant Association
for Interactive Media
Mr. Theodore Waitt Chairman Gateway,
Inc. |
|
For Immediate Release December 14,
1999 |
Press Contact: Debbie
Neville O'Keeffe & Company, Inc. (703)
883-9000, ext. 104 dneville@okeeffeco.com |
Mark Miner Press
Secretary Office of the Governor of Virginia (804)
692-3110 mminer@gov.state.va.us |
Advisory Commission on
Electronic Commerce Progresses Internet Tax Debate in San
Francisco Focuses on Consensus and Hard
Deliverables
San Francisco, CA - December 14, 1999 - The Advisory
Commission on Electronic Commerce, a congressionally-appointed
19-member commission tasked with studying the impact of
federal, state, local, and international taxation and tariffs
on transactions using the Internet and Internet Access, opened
its third
meeting in San Francisco today with discussions on
international tax and tariff issues, as well as a review of
proposals on "taxation" approaches to electronic commerce
transactions submitted by members of the public. The
proposals being considered include:
- "Internet Tax Elimination Act" -Mr. Chris Wysocki,
president, Small Business Survival Committee
- "The E-Freedom Coalition's Proposal" -Mr. Adam Thierer,
Walker Fellow in Economic Policy, Heritage Foundation, on
behalf of the E-Freedom Coalition
- "A Uniform Jurisdiction Standard" -Mr. Dean Andal,
California State Board of Equalization
- "A Prohibition on Discriminatory Ad Valorem Taxation on
Interstate Telecommunications" -Mr. Dean Andal, California
State Board of Equalization
- "Proposal for State and Local Taxation of the
Telecommunications Industry" -Ms. Stacey L. Sprinkle,
assistant vice president for tax, CommNet Cellular, Inc. and
Mr. Keith G. Landry, general attorney, BellSouth, CommNet
Cellular, Global Crossing, GTE, SBC, Sprint, US West, and
Western Wireless
- "A Proposal for Fostering the Fast and Efficient
Development and Operation of Internet Web Hosting
Facilities" -Mr. John Morabito, vice president, Federal
Legislative and Regulatory Affairs, Global Crossing, Ltd.
Advisory Commission Meets in San Francisco
On Wednesday, the Commission will hear additional
presentations, followed by a discussion and debate of an Issues
and Policy Options Paper. Generated by the Report Drafting
Subcommittee, the Issues and Policy Options Paper identifies
issues and presents options, objectively summarizing the
various positions available to the Commission. The paper
includes a distillation of discussions of the Commission's
previous meeting, and considerable input from Commissioners.
It consists of an introduction and notes, some areas of
potential agreement that surfaced in the drafting processes,
and the following seven sections:
- Internet Tax and Tariff Issues
- Tax Treatment of Internet Access
- Tax Treatment of Telecommunications Service Providers
- The Application of Transactions Taxes to Sales Conducted
Through the Internet
- Impact on Business Activity Taxes
- Redress Mechanism for Imposition of Unconstitutional
State and Local Taxes
- Digital Divide
"The Commission's objective is to debate the issues and
provide recommendations to the Congress," said Virginia
Governor, Jim Gilmore, chairman of the Commission. "In many
ways, the Issues and Policy Options Paper is a summary of
progress to date. A series of very real proposals is now on
the table. We look forward to a substantive, productive
meeting in San Francisco."
"The members of the subcommittee, with assistance from all
Commission members, have worked tirelessly to draft this
objective Issues and Policy Options Paper," said Robert
Pittman, president and chief operating officer, America
Online, and co-chairman of the Report Drafting
Subcommittee.
The Commission's San Francisco meeting will be Web-cast
both days via its Web site at
http://www.ecommercecommission.org. Transcripts from the
Commission's meeting will be posted on its Web site the week
ending December 24.
The Commission will take its next full, face-to-face
meeting in Dallas, March 20-21, 2000.
About the Advisory Commission on Electronic
Commerce
Appointed by Congress in October 1998 as part of the
Internet Tax Freedom Act, the 19-member Commission has been
tasked with studying the impact of federal, state, local, and
international taxation and tariffs on transactions using the
Internet and Internet Access. The Commission's recommendations
are due to Congress no later than April 21, 2000.
###
www.ecommercecommission.org 3401 North Fairfax
Drive Telephone: (703) 993-8049 · Facsimile: (703)
993-8250 |