What is the internet's impact on direct marketing today and tomorrow?

✍ Scribed by H. Robert Wientzen

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 2000
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 85 KB
• Volume: 14
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 1094-9968
• DOI: 10.1002/1520-6653(200022)14:3<74::aid-dir6>3.0.co;2-1

✦ Synopsis

I would like to touch on two concerns-taxation on the Internet and unsolicited bulk commercial email and privacy-because how the direct marketing industry deals with these two issues is going to have a substantial effect on marketing in the digital world.

First, the issue of Internet sales taxes is of great significance. What is at stake here is whether or not 30,000 state and local tax jurisdictions will be given the authority to tax cybersales, and possibly all remote sales. In October 1998, the President signed into law the Internet Tax Freedom Act, creating a three-year moratorium on state and local taxation of Internet access. During this time a specially appointed commission is to study the recommended tax policies for the borderless cyber-environment. The title "Tax Freedom Act" may be a misnomer, because in fact it moves in the direction of taxing the Internet. The DMA supported the moratorium, although we wanted it to be for five years. However, as it was enacted into law, the commission has the authority to examine all remote sales tax policies including those from mail order and teleservices, or in other words, use taxes, which the DMA has successfully opposed since some time back in