TEI Supports Release of NTA E-Commerce Report.

Tax Executives Institute recently voted to release the report of a joint business-government project on electronic commerce. The report of the National Tax Association's Communications and Electronic Commerce Tax Project was approved on September 7, 1999, and was promptly submitted to the federal Advisory Commission on Electronic Commerce. A creature of the Internet Tax Freedom Act, the Advisory Commission is charged with developing possible legislative solutions to issues relating to the taxation of the Internet and electronic commerce.

TEI has actively participated in the NTA e-commerce project for more than two years. When the project commenced in September 1997, the 16 business groups, 16 governmental groups, and 7 "other" individuals or organizations agreed to form a steering committee to work toward the development of "a broadly available public report that identifies and explores the issues involved in applying state and local taxes and fees to electronic commerce and that makes recommendations to state and local officials regarding the application of such taxes." TEI's representatives on the project's steering committee were Amy J. Eisenstadt of the General Electric Company, chair of the Institute's State and Local Tax Committee, and Timothy J. McCormally, TEI's General Counsel and Director of Tax Affairs.

Through a series of meetings and conference calls and a plethora of email exchanges, the project's members addressed a number of issues, including those relating to its own scope (e-commerce, remote commerce, or all commerce), situs and sourcing, tax base, tax rate, filing, and other administrative issues. The final report, which can be downloaded from the NTA's website (http://ntanet.org/) -- or from TEI On-Line -- consists of 11 parts:

* Executive Summary

* Introduction

* Prefatory Caveat

* Sales and Use Tax Rates

* Duty to Collect Sales and Use Taxes and Other Taxing Jurisdiction Issues

* Sales and Use Tax Base Issues

* Sourcing Transactions for Sales and Use Tax Purposes

* Simplification of State and Local Sales and Use Tax Administration

* Telecommunications Tax Issues

* Implementation Issues

* Appendix A: Project Steering Committee Members

The release of the NTA report was approved by all but one of the steering committee members, and that group did not oppose its release; it simply abstained. Nearly unanimous approval, however, does not signal consensus on the myriad issues addressed by the report. Indeed, the report itself...