Finding a way to make it more convenient for telecommunications and Internet companies to offer their services for cheaper rates has been the favorite pastime for local and state governments for quite a while now. The Texas state legislature thinks it has found one way to make that proposition more attractive with a new bill that would offer a tax rebate to companies offering those services. The new bill will take effect on September 1 and would offer a state tax rebate on sales and use tax for the sale, lease, rental, storage or use in connection with the distribution of cable television service. The rebate would also apply to servicing and distribution of Internet services.

This particular bill is geared toward trying to get companies to not only offer their services for lower fees across the board but also to offer services to areas that are low income and could not otherwise afford Internet and cable services. As technological services such as Internet and cablevision have progressed and become all the more popular, there have been plenty of moves by governments to give out these kinds of rebates.

There have been other business sectors that have been the beneficiaries of these kinds of tax rebates. Alternative energies companies have been getting plenty of these kinds of rebates the last few years. The Texas legislature is so sure that the bill will be bringing in companies that there is actually a cap of $50 million per year. There is also a feature of the bill that will change the amount of tax rebates given to each companies looking for the rebates, should the total requests go over the cap.

Texas is just one of a number of different states that have taken steps like this to encourage Internet distribution growth. Whether or not this works in the way they are hoping has yet to be seen and the full impact of the bill may not be seen for several years.