Fwd: WHITE HOUSE MULLS NEW INTERNET TAX PROPOSAL from edupage

Forwarded from Dave Farber's List
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I think the something at the WH has pushed them off the edge. How much you want to bet that it gives a lot more information than just the item costs. It will be used to police obscenity laws and censorship laws before it is done.

Dave


Ira Magaziner, President Clinton's senior Internet advisor, has proposed a 
new plan for tracking and taxing goods sold over the Internet that would use 
electronic "resident cards" and private-sector escrow agents around the 
world. Consumers would obtain digital cash at banks that would allow 
merchants to identify which country the buyer is in, but would reveal no 
other personal information. Consumption taxes would then be calculated, 
collected, and placed with an escrow agent who would then funnel the money 
to the appropriate government. "Governments would get their money more 
quickly... they would get a higher compliance rate... and the system would 
be easier to police," says Mr. Magaziner. (Wall Street Journal 11 Sep 98)

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				Thanks! 
					Bill
Bill Stewart, bill.stewart@pobox.com
PGP Fingerprint D454 E202 CBC8 40BF  3C85 B884 0ABE 4639

At 12:14 AM 9/15/98 -0700, Bill Stewart wrote:

>Ira Magaziner, President Clinton's senior Internet advisor, has proposed a 
>new plan for tracking and taxing goods sold over the Internet that would use 
>electronic "resident cards" and private-sector escrow agents around the 
>world. Consumers would obtain digital cash at banks that would allow 
>merchants to identify which country the buyer is in, 

And I thought "Monica was having sex with Clinton but Clinton wasn't having
sex with Monica" was the best the joke  meisters at the White House could
come up with.

Does Ira say how the OECD countries were going to mandate a monopoly
payment system?  Seems to me the number of payment systems is rising
towards infinity rather than falling towards unity.

The Ottawa conference is going to be a laugh riot.

DCF