The Federal Minister for Information Technology, Richard
Alston, has not ruled out a new tax on Internet transactions.
Senator Alston says he does not expect Australia to start taxing
purchases made via the Internet in the near future.
But he says it might happen when the Internet becomes more
widely used. "We obviously have to be conscious of protecting
the tax base," he said.
"So whilst we don't want to see the Net as simply another
revenue raising opportunity which not only discourages Net
transactions but actually causes people to bypass Australia and go
elsewhere, we also have to be conscious of the fact that we can't
just sit by and allow other revenue sources to dry up overnight
without replacing them."
--What exactly does he want to tax? If I buy a modem or a CD online using a credit card sales tax is included from merchants like CMM. What other revenue sources are drying up?
I'm totally confused by this wishy washy comment.
If he's talking about Internet-specific taxes then why should there be any at all? It's just another sales channel.
As far as I can tell it's not Internet merchants that don't pay tax, it's multi-millionaire media moguls and badly performing Victorian casinos that contribute toward blowdryed revenue sources.
Regards
Adam Creed