Internet Issues Win, Lose.

• Position: Proposed law HB 1440 - Brief Article

Taxes may be a little less certain than death now, at least on the Net and in Colorado. HB1440 would ban Internet access taxation in the state, which has the fifth highest telecom taxes nationally. It doesn't address sales and use taxes from online purchases and sales, however. Because that covers interstate commerce, the state may leave that to decisions on the federal level, said Alan Philp, deputy director of the Governor's Office of Innovation and Technology.

The bill was headed for the House floor at press time.

"We want to make sure (Internet taxation is) done at a mature level," and the Internet isn't to that level yet, said Dean Stevinson, executive director of the Governor's Commission on Science and Technology. When will it be? That's something decided as a consensus nationwide, he said.

A federal moratorium prevents federal and state taxation of the Internet, including access and sales taxes, until October 2001. As of early April, there was speculation that would be extended another five years.

In its March report to the governor, the commission recommended devising the Colorado Internet Tax Freedom Act, which would prohibit, with some exceptions, taxing Internet access, online computer services or their use; bit or bandwidth tax, "or any discriminatory tax on online computer services or Internet access;" as well as taxing goods and services sold over the Internet. The...