Spanish-American War Tax Repealed
I saw in the paper the other day (and just now found an article online) that there will no longer be a 3% tax on long distance calls. Apparently there’ve been something like 5 different lawsuits that have ruled the tax as being illegal, and the Treasury Department finally decided to do away with it for real.
More money in my bank account is always nice, but the really interesting thing here is that the tax was originally established to help fund the Spanish American War in 1898. At the time, it was actually a tax on the rich since the telephone was a luxury item. It was renewed multiple times to help pay for other wars, but still, it does seem a bit dated… Also, is long distance really a relevant term any more? The importance of distinguishing between “local” and “long distance” calls is rapidly diminishing.
As an added bonus, you can actually claim what you paid going all the way back to 2003 on next year’s taxes. But if you’re like many people and you have a hard time just finding last month’s phone bill, it may be a bit difficult. I heard there is talk of some sort of standard deduction, however.
phone
tax Popularity: 3% [?]
On my phone bill, I saw this and it pretty much contradicts what they’re “giving us back”…
RESIDENTIAL SURCHARGES INCREASE:
Effective on your July invoice the Number Portability Surcharge
will increase to $0.35 per line. The Federal Universal Service
Fund Charge is now 10.9% of the End User Common Line Charge.
Therefore, also effective on your July invoice, the Federal
Universal Service Fund Charge will increase to $0.71. If you
have any questions, please call us at 1.877.662.6191.
Little sneaks!
Nice.
Unless something changed, the number portability charges are completely due to the phone company.The government doesn’t actually collect any money from the whole thing, but the phone comanies are allowed to charge a fee to cover their costs in the matter. Are you getting charged monthly for having a number transfered?
not that i know of…shrug…i just pay what the bill is! lol