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Release DESIRE FOR INTERNET TAXES DRIVES ONE GOVERNOR TO THREATEN TO USE STATE POLICE TO TRACK CITIZENS' ONLINE PURCHASES Released by Sean Duffy on 12/15/99 of Commonwealth Foundation |
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
(12/15/99) CONTACT: Sean Duffy– 717-671-1901(W) or 717-545-2370 (H) www.commonwealthfoundation.org Demonstrating that politicians' desperation for tax dollars trumps common sense –and citizens' privacy– the governor of South Dakota today told a national commission that he would consider using his state highway patrol to pull over delivery trucks to track citizens' packages and ultimately monitor tax payments. This raises serious concerns about the lengths to which states might go to collect money from their citizens, the president of The Commonwealth Foundation said today. Gov. William Janklow (R-South Dakota) today told the Advisory Commission on Electronic Commerce that, unless a new scheme is enacted to allow states to tax all purchases made online or through catalogues, he would consider ordering the South Dakota Highway Patrol to pull over, in his words, "little brown trucks" of the United Parcel Service. The highway patrol officers would, in Janklow's view, identify the names and addresses of package recipients. This data would be used to enforce payment of the state's use tax. "For a governor to seriously suggest that his state police would interdict ski boots from L.L Bean or fruit baskets from Harry & David just to pick up a few bucks in tax money is dangerously irresponsible," said Commonwealth Foundation President Sean Duffy, a founding member of the national anti-tax E-Freedom Coalition. "Highly trained officers of the highway patrol are on the job to protect citizens, not to chase down UPS trucks in defense of the state treasury. Every other governor should repudiate this silly scheme, regardless of their views on Internet taxes." Under current law, consumers making purchases online or by telephone from an out-of-state firm are not required to pay sales taxes on those purchases. However, most states require consumers to voluntarily pay a "use tax" on that purchase – although state revenue departments admit that it costs more to enforce use-tax collections than the state would receive in revenue. Duffy said the knowledge that citizens are able to do some of their Christmas shopping online sales-tax free and the sizeable majority of Americans who oppose new Internet taxes is "causing tax spenders to come unhinged." "Some governors who are eager to tax the Internet are facing the fact that their tax scheme is wildly unpopular with consumers and will severely damage the emerging electronic commerce sector," Duffy said. "But that doesn't stop them from threatening to invade citizens' privacy and apprehend lawfully purchased packages if they can't get tax money any other way." The National Governors' Association Internet sales tax proposal, which Gov. Janklow supports, would impose a new national scheme to collect state taxes on every Internet purchase, constrict citizen access to Internet providers and jeopardize consumers' privacy. In contrast, proposals from Virginia Gov. Jim Gilmore and the E-Freedom Coalition, would make permanent the current ban on new Internet taxes and tear down government-imposed taxes and rules that drive up the cost of Internet access. The E-Freedom Coalition (www.e-freedom.org) is an organization of more than two dozen consumer, taxpayer and public policy organizations that has presented a plan to keep Internet taxes OFFline. Founded in 1988, The Commonwealth Foundation is a statewide, non-partisan, public-policy research organization based in Harrisburg, Pa. | |
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