Push Is on to Nix 107-year-old Phone Tax

Newsmax Magazine ^ | 8/03/2005 | Unknown

[cll]

Too funny.

[BipolarBob]

"Too funny."

Not if you're paying it.

[onyx]

MAYBE this time around we'll get action, but I doubt it.

[Pessimist]

Hey, ya' never know when Spain might get upitty again...

[Mark was here]

Maybe we should get back to more of a pay as you go setup to pay for our military affairs.

[digger48]

Looking at phone bill....

Basic Rate- $14.00

Federal Subsriber Line Charge-$6.50
Intrastate access-$4.36
911 Service-$2.07
Federal Excise Tax-$.83
Federal Universal Service Charge-$.66
State Sales Tax-$1.53

Total-$29.98


I don't use their long distance. but $14/month phone line gets doubled by access charges and taxes.

[finnsheep]

We've been paying a tax for 911 numbers for several years in rural PA, but have yet to get allocated an official house number/address. So now 911 dispatches rescue equipment to numbers that the homeowners know nothing about. We still have highway contract numbers and box numbers with no indication of where we actually live.

[fishtank]

Article: "Is Grover Norquist an Islamist?" Here:


http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1399502/posts

[dts32041]

I know that feeling all long distance calls go out on the cell.

[fmonkey]

Not if you're paying it.
I work in the telecommunications industry and most of the large companies have protocols in place for people that refuse to pay this tax. You'd be surprised how many people send in letters with their payments saying that they refuse to pay the war tax. The names are just kept in a list, and once a week or so they send them off to the IRS and let them sort them out.
I'm pretty sure this will never pass. For the same reason that VOIP is having trouble in some states. The government wants their money and, in most cases, will react poorly when we try to keep it from them.

[Terabitten]

The government wants their money and, in most cases, will react poorly when we try to keep it from them.

And that, my FRiend, is exactly the problem. Until the government realizes that it ISN'T their money, the problem will persist.

[RightWhale]

Is Spain done yet? True, yellow journalism has not paid much attention to Spain lately, but is it really over?

[BipolarBob]

" The government wants their money and, in most cases, will react poorly when we try to keep it from them."

No, the government wants MY money. The whole gist of the article is the ruse is over about this pretense of what the intent of this tax is about.

[cll]

In my perspective the Spanish-American War is not over since the U.S. Congress has not fulfilled its obligations under the Treaty of Paris of 1898.

[RightWhale]

Figures. Congress always starts off with good intentions, or intentions anyway, but soon enough loses interest and never finishes anything unless it is a real scary war. The Spanish war wasn't all that scary, so Congress was off to other topics right away.

[highball]

Does that in any way reflect upon this issue?

I don't like the guy, but he's right on this one.

[Kokojmudd]

Abolish it AND refund ALL the money to EVERY taxpayer or their kin unless they were alive during the war.

[lilylangtree]

We need refunds going back 107 years--reparations please.

[Living Free in NH]

Tax cuts mean nothing unless there's an accompanying spending cut. Otherwise, they'll just get the lost phone tax revenue from somewhere else. Keep an eye on your cable bill.

[fmonkey]

No, the government wants MY money. The whole gist of the article is the ruse is over about this pretense of what the intent of this tax is about.
Exactly. The government sees this tax as a way for them to get money that rightfully belongs to them. Not as money that they're stealing from us.