More VoIP Legislation To Stop States From Going Tax Crazy
from the where's-the-FCC dept
While the FCC continues to take its sweet time figuring out issues concerning VoIP regulation, various states (and now even the IRS) continue to try to squeeze the new technology for as many taxes as they can -- potentially slowing down the rollout of this new technology. Politicians in Congress appear to be hearing enough about this that they're practically shoving each other aside to move all "advanced internet communications services" out of the regulatory grips of state governments and giving all the control to the FCC. While getting it away from state governments (whose only goal appears to be raising the amount of taxes they can bring in, with no concern to the impact of raising taxes on new technologies) is a good thing, it's not clear that the FCC will be all that helpful either. It certainly raises a question about why VoIP should be regulated at all if it's just an application on the internet?
Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.
While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.
–The Techdirt Team
