April 19th, 2006 by Justin Oberman
… the Spanish American War that is. Thats right, that 3 percent “federal excise tax” on your monthly cell phone bill goes to support Roosevelt and his Rough Riders and a war that happened over a 108 years ago!
According to the Non-for profit consumer advocacy group MyWireless.org, the tax originated as a luxury tax imposed by President William McKinley on a new invention called “the telephone.” Back then only wealthy Americans had phones. While the Spanish American war only lasted 4 months the so called luxury “Tax on Talk” is still around 100 years later and unlike other excise taxes, the money raised through this 3% tax is not “earmarked” toward any specific purpose (probably because the reason behind the tax ended 100 years ago), not even to improve service or support for the telecom services that are being singled out for the tax. 9 federal courts have ruled that the tax is illegal. U.S. Representative Gary Miller has a proposal, H.R. 1898, and Senator Rick Santorum has introduced a bill, S. 1321, both of which will repeal the Federal Excise Tax. Other Law makers are, as well, demanding that the wireless networks stop collecting the tax and refund consumers at least 3 years of fees. Most networks support getting rid of the ban but wireless networks are required to collect the tax until the IRS tells them to stop. “Its taxes like these,” says Erin Mcgee, a spokeswoman for MyWireless.org, “that make makes access to wireless (and other telecom) services less affordable for many Americans.” Confronting issues such as these, and allowing consumers to take action about it, is exactly what MyWireless.org is all about.
For more on MyWireless visit my blog at Personal Democracy.
Technorati Tags: ctia, mobile, wireless, mywireless, mobile, war
April 20th, 2006 at 5:31 am
My question would be. how much is this exise tax actually work out to be and how much is three years woth of this tax refund going to cost you and I Federal tax payers?
The Wireless Industry were collecting it for the government and there for it is the government that will ultimately have to refund the money and not the phone companies. So the tax payers will be soaked for this user tax on phone users.
This tax isn’t the reason wireless phones are out if reach for some people it is the high cost of even basic phone servec before the fees and taxes are added.
June 9th, 2006 at 2:44 am
Carnival of the Mobilists No. 24
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