DMA chief wants extension of Internet tax moratorium—including sales tax

Congress should extend the moratorium on Internet taxes for at least two and preferably up to five years, H. Robert Wientzen, the Direct Marketing Association’s president and CEO, said at the opening of the DMA`s 84th Annual Conference and Exhibition being held this week at McCormick Place in Chicago.

Wientzen also called for the moratorium to ban all state sales taxes. Congress failed to extend the moratorium on Internet taxes when it expired this month.

“It`s going to be a tough and costly political and media battle for us to wage,” he said. “However, if the states ultimately get their way, direct marketers will be in the even more costly business of collecting sales taxes for 7,600 state and local jurisdictions. And consumers will lose a very important tool in buying at a distance.”

In his remarks, Wientzen also called for reform of the U.S. Postal Service, which is seeking its third rate hike in 18 months.