WASHINGTON - One way to give space the business is to create a "tax-free" commercial zone high above Earth.
A bill is now before Congress that, if passed, would promote "the true commercialization of space," said Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-California), who introduced it on Thursday.
Called the Zero-Gravity, Zero-Tax Act of 2000, it proposes a 25-year tax moratorium on profits derived from manufacturing a new product in, or providing a new service from, outer space. The moratorium on taxes would exclude telecommunications, Earth observation and satellite launch industries – already money-making enterprises.
The bill also would lift federal tariffs for any new products or services generated in outer space. Lastly, the act is crafted to exclude capital gains on the sale of stock in new space companies that are focused on providing products and services from and in space.
"I introduced this bill because the creation of a temporary tax-free zone in space is the perfect way to promote space commercialization," said Rohrabacher in a statement inviting his fellow lawmakers to support the legislation.
Should this bill become law, he said, "it will bring the dream of opening the space frontier more within our collective reach."
One outside group ready to champion the bill is ProSpace, a citizen’s space lobby group, that is preparing to roam the corridors of Congress all next week for "March Storm 2000."
Members of the nationwide organization are armed with an agenda of space action items, said Ransom Wuller, president of ProSpace in Belleville, Illinois.
"The Zero-Gravity, Zero-Tax Act of 2000 is one of our agenda items, and we believe it’s an important one. We see the opening of the space frontier as a two-pronged approach. First, you’ve got to lower the cost of transportation to orbit. The other key is to create markets for people to make some money," Wuller told SPACE.com.
Wuller said Rohrabacher’s bill would assist nascent commercial space firms in attracting potential investors.
"By having no tax associated with revenues generated from a space industry over a 25-year period, that would certainly help increase market activity in low Earth orbit," he said.
Rohrabacher said the bill intends to make outer space "open to American business." Passage would maintain and increase the country’s international leadership in space commerce, create new high-tech space jobs in the U.S. and encourage unprecedented investment in new space companies, he said.
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