In testimony before the governor’s taxA tax is a mandatory payment or charge collected by local, state, and national governments from individuals or businesses to cover the costs of general government services, goods, and activities. commission in Jackson, Mississippi, experts from the Pew Charitable Trust and the Tax Foundation agreed that taxes on phone companies are a terrible burden on the companies and their customers.
Every new service the hyper-competitive phone companies offer spawns a new tax that is grafted onto old taxes left over from when Ma Bell was our one monopoly phone company.
Just today we received a plea for help from the manager of a new hotel who is desperately trying to figure out what her hotel’s phone bill is going to be like. She drew up a chart of tax rates that she needs to fill in.
|
TAXES |
City |
State |
Federal |
Other1 |
Other2 |
|
Local |
____% |
____% |
____% |
____% |
____% |
|
950 |
____% |
____% |
____% |
____% |
____% |
|
976 |
____% |
____% |
____% |
____% |
____% |
|
411 Info |
____% |
____% |
____% |
____% |
____% |
|
555 Info |
____% |
____% |
____% |
____% |
____% |
|
1-700 |
____% |
____% |
____% |
____% |
____% |
|
1-800 |
____% |
____% |
____% |
____% |
____% |
|
1-900 |
____% |
____% |
____% |
____% |
____% |
|
(0+) |
____% |
____% |
____% |
____% |
____% |
|
Message Unit |
____% |
____% |
____% |
____% |
____% |
|
In-state |
____% |
____% |
____% |
____% |
____% |
|
State-to-state |
____% |
____% |
____% |
____% |
____% |
|
International |
____% |
____% |
____% |
____% |
____% |
|
HOBIC |
____% |
____% |
____% |
____% |
____% |
|
Equipment |
____% |
____% |
____% |
____% |
____% |
Those “other” columns could be school districts or some other regional tax authority, legal entities created by state or local politicians who have delegated the power to tax so that they can avoid voting on a tax hike.
More on cell phone taxes here.
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