The interests of the Internet community are closely aligned with those of the library community, including open global access and shared information. The first day s seminar began with remarks from Andy Sernovitz, president of AIM, concerning the passage of recent legislation specifically, the Internet Tax Freedom Act and Amendments. We didn t work hard enough to stop the attachments to the Internet Tax Freedom Act. This legislation creates a 3-year moratorium on Internet access taxes. The add-ons are what brought us the issues of censorship and government intervention in the way Internet business is conducted.
Corporate libraries are business centers.
It will leave its mark, there s no doubt about that. The popular part of the recent bill is the moratorium on Internet taxes for the next 3 years, along with preventing local governments from charging value-added taxes for at least 3 years. During this respite there will be committees investigating all aspects of the Internet tax question. It s probably a safe bet to conclude that the investigations will lead to recommendations for Internet taxes of some kind, and any kind of tax will go directly to the bottom line of a library s systems budget. Even if it s decided that libraries will be exempt from some or all new Internet taxes, there will be a cost to libraries in time and understanding to prepare paperwork for tracking your exemptions.