Senate extension of Internet Tax Freedom Act ‘virtually certain’
It’s “virtually certain” that the Senate will pass some sort of ITFA extension, but “whether that’s [S-431] … is another story,” said R Street Institute Executive Director Andrew Moylan. “The Senate has typically been a slightly more difficult challenge in terms of passing that sort of legislation. It remains to be seen whether the Senate is going to go along with [HR-235], but I think we’re certain to see a good push for a relatively long-term extension — something measured in months rather than years.”
…It’s likely that supporters of the Marketplace Fairness Act (S-698), including Sens. Mike Enzi, R-Wyo., and Dick Durbin, D-Ill., will “try and make every effort to combine” that bill with S-431, which some IFA extension supporters would be ready to accept, said the pro-ITFA lobbyist. “There is no poison pill at this point” for those supporters, the lobbyist said. Moylan said he also believes it’s likely that S-698 sponsors will attempt to attach S-431 to their bill given that they did the same thing last year, but that remains “a very misguided effort. I think [S-698] is a terrible piece of legislation and it’s directly at odds with the concept of ITFA. But because they both have the words Internet and tax in their titles, there’s an attempt to lump them together.” A permanent ITFA extension “is at its core Congress using its Commerce Clause authority to tell states that they cannot do certain things with tax policy that are damaging to interstate commerce,” Moylan said: MFA “is the direct opposite of that.”
