Internet The European Commission is planning to collect sales taxes on music and software purchased on the Internet, testing the ability to enforce national tax laws in cyberspace. Proposals developed by the European Commission in Brussels would have companies collect what is known as a value-added tax, a type of sales tax, on products they sell and distribute over the Internet. The taxes are currently collected by stores, mail-order companies, or by customs officials when the products were to be shipped across national boundaries. Under the proposals that are being debated in Brussels, products sold on the Web would be taxed based on the rate in the customer's country, meaning that companies operating in the United States would have to collect the taxes on all sales to European customers. American companies warn that efforts to extend the existing tax system would prove extremely complicated and unenforceable.
Internet Companies are still wary of depending entirely on online market research.
The people on the Internet still tend to be male, whiter, richer, and more technically savvy than the general populace. And while market-research firms assure their clients that they weight the data to make up for these discrepancies, companies are still uncertain. Focus groups are difficult to conduct over the Internet since researches aren't able to watch for important nonverbal signs such as sneering, grinning or chuckling. But one advantage of online market research is the ability to access a narrow niche of respondents quickly and easily. While farmers use the Internet to access weather updates, crop prices, and plague alerts, the real attraction is in the big savings to be had in purchasing fertilizers, seeds and pesticides.