Internet tax inevitable.

• Author: Rundles, Jeff
• Position: Rundles Wrap-Up - Column

If you drive a car, I'll tax the street If you try to sit, I'll tax your seat If you get too cold, I'll tax the heat, If you take a walk, I'll tax your feet --"The Taxman," By George Harrison, 1966 LAST MONTH, THE LATEST IN A SERIES of temporary national bans on taxing anything to do with the Internet expired, and once again the debate over taxing the virtual world is raging.

The fight over a virtual tax haven online has been joined in Colorado, where our own governor, Bill Owens, through a conservative think tank he is behind called the Center for the New American Century, has become the national champion of a taxation-free Internet.

There is something noble in the cause, of course. It would be nice to think we are capable of leaving some measure of human endeavor alone from the basest of human devices. And Gov. Owens, of course, is getting a lot of mention as a candidate for president of the United States as soon as 2008, and you just can't discount how important an anti-tax moniker can be in the riskiest of all political arenas.

But let's be realistic.

All rhetoric aside, George Harrison, way back in 1966, got no arguments to his observations on taxation, and nothing has changed since.

All tax-cutting or "no new taxes" administrations since the mid-1960s belie one simple fact: the individual tax burden inexorably rises.

It is inevitable that the Internet will be taxed. That much is sure.

There will be taxes on the technological side--levies to dial-up, cable or DSL providers--and there will be taxes on the service side--sales taxes on the purchases of goods that are made over the Internet. And the truth is, there should be levies on this economic activity, if only out of fairness.

Why should I pay a sales tax at the retail store when I can go online and pay no tax at all? Pretty soon I'll just window shop at the physical store and then make my purchase online, and then pretty soon after that there won't be any physical stores anymore.

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Gov. Owens says he doesn't believe people shop the Internet to avoid taxes, but I disagree. Hey, for years if I was going to spend any significant amount of money--more...