Trent Lott: “I am pleased that the Internet Tax Freedom Act was included in the 1998 Omnibus Appropriations bill. Congress wants a…”

“I am pleased that the Internet Tax Freedom Act was included in the 1998 Omnibus Appropriations bill. Congress wants a limited moratorium, accompanied by a careful review of all Internet and electronic commerce tax issues. This will give Congress the opportunity to properly evaluate state and local government interstate taxation, federal taxation and trade treatment of the Internet and electronic commerce. By enacting this measure, Congress also declared that the Internet should be free of any new federal taxes during the moratorium. Mr. President, present federal law imposes no tax specifically on the Internet, including domain name registrations. However, with several of my colleagues, I have become aware of a pertinent U.S. Federal Court case, Thomas et al v. National Science Foundation et al. In this case, the Court recently declared that Section 8003--Ratification of Internet Fees--of the Emergency Supplemental Appropriations Act of FY98 did sanction what had been previously found by the Court to be an unconstitutional tax on domain name registrations. I want to take this opportunity to state for the record that Section 8003 was never intended by Congress to ratify a tax on the Internet, but only to address a fee for the Intellectual Infrastructure Fund. Let me be clear. Section 8003 was not an authorization of any tax, unconstitutional or otherwise.”