Groups Push for Permanent Internet Tax Freedom Act

More than 40 organizations have written to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) and Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) asking the Senate to pass the Internet Tax Freedom Act (ITFA), which would make permanent a long-standing ban in all but a few states on taxing Internet access service.

The bill has already passed the House—and the Senate Judiciary Committee—and a temporary renewal of the ban has been extended through the end of September, but a Senate version, which was added as a rider on a trade bill, did not pass. In part that was because some Democrats, particularly in those handful of states whose grandfathered Internet service provider taxes would be phased out, complained of the last-minute maneuver and said the bill should be paired with the Marketplace Fairness Act (MFA), which allows for local taxation of online purchases and they suggest could help compensate for the loss of the ISP tax in their states. Republicans strongly back ITFA, but not so much the MFA.