Re: NY TAXES CYBERSPACE, CRAM REACTS

[Jason Zions <jazz@hal.com>]

Y'know, a two-paragraph summary in calm tones, followed by the text of the
tax notice, would have been more effecitve; breathless hyperbole turns some
people off.

In any event, I see no reference to retroactivity. At worst, if someone paid
an annual fee, tax is owed only on the prorated portion of services to be
rendered after September 1. That is, if someone paid $30 on January 1 for
one year's service, tax is owed only on the "unused" $10 covering Sept 1
through December 31. This is relatively clear from the wording regarding
"service to be rendered after...".

Yes, it's monumentally stupid. You think you got it bad? I can't believe the
brokerage houses on Wall Street let this one go; NYSE ticker feeds are
covered by this, as are all generic reuseable information feeds, which means
transmission of credit reports and the like. This is gonna jack up most
things related to the US finance industry, especially NYSE and large
arbitrage.

I left New York State years ago; seems the state's IQ really *did* get
stupider after I left. :-)

Jason