Support a 3-Year Freeze on New Taxes

Tired of spiraling state and local taxes, fees and surcharges on your monthly wireless bill? You are not alone. Nearly 250 million American wireless consumers are increasingly saddled with an unfair tax burden by their state and local governments. Wireless costs have dropped nearly 80 percent over the last 10 years, but the typical wireless consumer now faces over 14 percent in taxes, fees and surcharges on his or her wireless service, more than twice the average tax rate for other goods and services in this country.

The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) ruled just last year that the 3 percent Federal Excise Tax (FET) does not apply to wireless service. It is time for state and local governments to follow suit and lower the discriminatory tax burden on wireless consumers.

Support the Cell Phone Tax Freedom Act of 2007 - legislation to place a three-year moratorium on new state and local discriminatory wireless taxes today!

The “State” of Wireless Taxes:

• The state-local tax rate on wireless service increased more than 8 times faster than the rate on other taxable goods and services between January 2003 and July 2005. Clearly, wireless consumers are targeted for discriminatory taxes.
• 12 States - Nebraska, Washington, Florida, New York, Texas, Rhode Island, Missouri, Pennsylvania, California, Utah, Illinois and Kansas - are each above 15 percent in wireless taxes, fees and surcharges.
• 27 more states - including Washington, D.C. - have double-digit wireless taxes, fees and surcharges.
• Cities often target wireless consumers when they can’t balance their budgets. For example, Baltimore City imposed a $3.50 per-line, per-month charge on Baltimore residents to pay for unrelated city services. This regressive tax applies whether a customer pays $30.00 per-month for service, or $100 per-month for service. What’s worse, consumers buying family-share plans must pay the tax on each line! This is clearly an unfair tax burden for lower and fixed-income wireless consumers, their families and their businesses.
• States like South Dakota and Pennsylvania double-tax wireless consumers by placing a “Gross Receipts Tax” (GRT) on wireless service, this on top of state sales taxes and other local taxes.
• More than six years after the National Governors Association (NGA) and the National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL) urged states to reform and modernize their telecommunications taxes, most states have failed to enact meaningful reforms that benefit consumers. Congress needs to act if the states will not!
• Because new discriminatory state and local taxes, fees and surcharges on wireless service are regressive - and significantly increase consumers’ cost of service - the burden falls disproportionately hard on lower-income users, and may discourage seniors, working families, and small businesses on fixed monthly budgets from benefiting fully from wireless services.

You Can Make A Difference Today:

Legislation to establish a 3-year moratorium on unfair, new state and local wireless taxes, fees and surcharges has been introduced in 2007 in the U.S. Senate and in the U.S. House of Representatives.

Click here to urge your elected officials today to support
‘The Cell Phone Tax Freedom Act of 2007.’