If it grows, tax it

Abstract

Some people see the Internet as a worldwide free-speech machine while tax officials see it as a cash-cow and as a potential tax-evasion machine. So far, there is no coordinated government effort to tax economic activities in cyberspace. Instead, each level of government is exploring a variety of ideas. Cyberspace companies may evade taxes by dissolving themselves before tax-collectors even discover their existence. Thus, the growth of cyberspace taxation will be messy, confused, controversial, and slow.