Internet taxation laws have been debated in courtrooms across the U.S. for the past several years, with the fortunes of single page websites and multibillion-dollar enterprises hanging in the balance.
In what we consider being a landmark case, the North Carolina Department of Revenue had requested that e-commerce giant Amazon reveal sensitive customer data to help the state collect back taxes from online transactions. The motion was recently denied because of basic First Amendment rights, delivering a significant blow to North Carolina’s plan to use the tax money to lower its considerable budget deficit. The decision represents a victory for the commercial Web as well as for the U.S. Constitution, but similar cases are being decided in New York, Texas, Colorado and several other states.
