The House Judiciary Committee Approves Legislation to Permanently Prohibit State Taxes on Internet Access

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Written by Peter J. Scalise | Posted in State And Local Tax (SALT)

On June 18^th the House Judiciary Committee approved H.R. 3086, entitled “The Permanent Internet Tax Freedom Act” (hereinafter “PITFA”), by a large margin vote of 30 to 4. The bipartisan bill has more than 220 cosponsors. The legislation would make permanent the provisions of the Internet Tax Freedom Act, which temporarily bans states from taxing Internet access or placing multiple or discriminatory taxes on e-commerce. Most states currently do not tax Internet access, although several states do such as Ohio and Texas, which were grandfathered under the original legislation. The new bill would remove that exemption. By striking the 2014 expiration date from the bill, the PITFA makes the suspension permanent instead of requiring reauthorization every few years.

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Peter J. Scalise

Peter J. Scalise serves as the Federal Tax Credits & Incentives Practice Leader for Prager Metis CPAs, LLC a member of The Prager Metis International Group. Peter is a highly distinguished BIG 4 Alumni Tax Practice Leader and has approximately twenty years of progressive public accounting experience developing, managing and leading multi-million dollar tax advisory practices on both a regional and national level.

Peter is a highly acclaimed thought leader in the fields of accounting and taxation with deep subject matter expertise in connection to designing, implementing and defending sustainable methodologies for specialty tax incentives including, but not limited to, research tax incentives; orphan drug credits; therapeutic discovery credits; accounting methods and periods; energy tax incentives in connection to green building envelope efficiency and benchmarking, solar energy, bio energies, fuel cells, wind turbines, micro turbines, and geothermal systems; and comprehensive fixed asset analysis incorporating principles of construction tax planning, cost segregation analysis and the final treasury regulations governing tangible property.

Peter is a renowned keynote speaker and an extensively published author on specialty tax incentives, tax controversy matters, and legislative updates from Capitol Hill for NAREIT, AGRION, USGBC, AICPA, ASTP, NATP, ABA, AIA, and TEI. Peter serves as a member of the Tax Faculty for CPAacademy, iShade and TaxConnections University (“TCU”). Peter serves on both the Board of Directors and Board of Editors for The American Society of Tax Professionals (“ASTP”) and is the Founding President and Chairman of The Northeastern Region Tax Roundtable.