"I feel like the government is [dipping into] our pockets all the time, and to have the Internet - this wild frontier of resources for people - to be taxed would be just a shame," says Caity MacPherson of Samantha's Online Galleries (www.samanthasgalleries.com/). "So I'm thrilled to hear this news."
"This news" was the word March 21 that the Advisory Commission on Electronic Commerce would recommend to Congress a five-year extension to the government's moratorium on Internet sales taxes. The moratorium is currently scheduled to end in October 2001. The commission also recommends a permanent ban on taxing Internet access, refraining from applying state and local taxes to the Web, repealing a century-old telephone tax first imposed to finance the Spanish-American War, and urges state and local governments to find their own viable and non-intrusive sales tax system solutions.
MacPherson says there are enough things threatening adult entertainment without new tax problems. "There are so many different layers of threats," she says, "and to have an added issue of taxation added would really be cause for some business problems. We deal with free speech, the cost of production - well, every businessperson does. But we're dealing with different people who are in our pockets all the time on different levels, so it's good we're not going to have to deal with any sort of taxation for now."
MacPherson's enthusiasm for the no-new-Net-taxes recommendation is seconded by another veteran adult star, Danni Ashe. "It's really wonderful to see that reason prevails," says the mastermind of Danni's Hard Drive (www.danni.com/). "I think there are larger issues that have to be thought through and addressed before we get into this," she believes. "Simply having to collect and pay (taxes) wouldn't choke the Net. The big deal is having to collect a different tax for every state."
But what of the brick-and-mortar businesses that seemingly have no problem paying different states' taxes? "They have a physical presence where they have to file those returns," Ashe insists. "Small Net businesses shouldn't have to deal with such huge tax issues the same as Macy's, which has stores all across the country."
MacPherson acknowledges, however, that "people like me" usually won't get "energized" about issues like taxes until they're threatened directly. "The average citizen isn't going to get worked up over Internet taxes until they threaten them."
But she says Net taxes wouldn't just hit the adult business on its own general terms - they could put a big crimp into one of the adult industry's little-remarked phenomena outside its own corridors: women making big gains as entrepreneurs. "The biggest opportunity for people in the adult online business is in the area of women succeeding and having an opportunity to succeed," in ways other than taking their clothes off for a camera. Women are running their own operations in more and more segments of the adult entertainment business, a trend MacPherson sees continuing to grow but standing for possible compromise should the Internet end up becoming just another tax dollar cow.
Ashe admits she didn't pay close attention to the Net tax issue in the beginning. "Clearly, it's such a complicated issue, to even just have to pay your taxes properly in the state of California is a mess," says the Los Angeles-based Web master. "If you had to do that for the entire country, it would be unfairly burdensome."
And she says it's not just a question of the United States. "You're not just talking about one local community [on the Net], you're talking about the world community," she says, "an amalgamation of a million different ideas about how things should be done."
Ashe agrees with MacPherson that Net taxes would put a unique crimp into female entrepreneurship, acknowledging, like MacPherson, that the adult Internet has made it easier for women to find success in business without taking their clothes off. "It's been an incredibly level playing field that's allowed so many women to start their own businesses," says Ashe. "It's a very simple business to get into. The Net as a whole. Anyone can start a Web site and really apply themselves to it. Requiring compliance to complicated tax laws could be very, very difficult."
