rom then until 1997 there was a slow yet steady increase in Internet revenue, which increased from eight million to twenty one billion dollars. This may seem like a large amount of money being transacted over the Internet over a few short years, but the amount of money generated has significantly jumped from what used to be seventy-three billion dollars in 1998 to what is currently seven hundred and seventeen billion dollars. This is an increase of six hundred and forty-four billion dollars over a three-year period. It is even predicted that Internet revenue will reach the one trillion two hundred thirty four million dollar mark in 2002.It is clear that Internet generated revenue is playing a more significant role in the economy today than it did in the past. In the future, businesses will be relying more on Internet based transactions, due to increasing societal demands for products and services. Because of this increasing Internet generated revenue, tax authorities are worried about the potential loss of tax revenues, which is why there needs to be a set standard of how the tax of transactions over the Internet are dealt with.In the following bar graph entitled ”US E-commerce 1998-2003,” the amount of United States dollars in billions is compared to business to business and business to consumer transactions in the late part of the twentieth century and into the early twenty first century. As shown, in the year 1998 business to business transactions over the Internet exceeded business to consumer transactions by over five times the amount. Currently in the year 2001, business- to-consumer transactions over the Internet have totaled approximately fifty two billion dollars. In contrast, business-to-business transactions have totaled about five hundred billion dollars. This figure is an astounding difference of ten times between the two types of transactions shown on the graph. The future predicts that by 2003 busine...
