April 14, 2010
MyWireless.org Recognizes Tomorrow’s Tax Day by Calling for Consumer Relief on Cell Phone Taxes
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Wednesday, April 14, 2010
PRESS CONTACT: Brian Johnston, (202) 431-4866
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Around the country, Americans are rushing to meet tomorrow’s deadline for filing their federal and state income tax returns. MyWireless.org®, a national consumer advocacy coalition, is speaking out on behalf of taxpayers by calling out for consumer relief from new, discriminatory state and local wireless taxes & fees, and for the repeal of an archaic tax regulation pertaining to wireless use. Specifically, MyWireless.org supports the passage of two pieces of legislation, the “Cell Tax Fairness Act of 2009” and the “Mobile Cell Phone Act of 2009.”
The Cell Tax Fairness Act of 2009 has been introduced in the United States Senate (S. 1192) by Senators Ron Wyden (D-OR) and Olympia Snowe (R-ME), and in the U.S. House of Representatives (H.R. 1521) by Representatives Zoe Lofgren (D-CA) and Trent Franks (R-AZ). The legislation calls for a 5-year moratorium to be placed on any new and discriminatory wireless taxes & fees at the state and local levels. The bills are currently being considered in the Senate Committee on Finance and the House Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee on Commercial and Administrative Law.
“Wireless consumers are paying on average about 16% in combined monthly taxes & fees, and passing the Cell Tax Fairness Act would be a good step in the right direction in taking such an unreasonably heavy load off the backs of the hundreds of millions of American wireless users,” says Brian Johnston, director of Advocacy for MyWireless.org. Johnston also points out that the average annual national consumer tax debt on wireless is approximately $21 billion, and that wireless taxes are often double or triple those of other taxable goods and services.
The other legislation MyWireless.org is urging Congress to pass, the “MOBILE Cell Phone Act of 2009,” was introduced in the Senate (S. 144) by Senators John Kerry (D-MA) and John Ensign (R-NV), and in the House (H.R. 690) by Representatives Earl Pomeroy (D-ND) and Sam Johnson (R-TX). It would remove employer-provided wireless devices from I.R.S. ‘Listed Property’ rules. Listed Property means that current I.R.S. tax code considers an employer-provided wireless device to be a fringe benefit, which means employees must keep detailed ledgers of personal calls and communications made from that work device, and then report them for I.R.S. taxation. The White House, Treasury Department and I.R.S. itself agree that this tax law is outdated and needs to be repealed. The bills are currently being considered in the Senate Committee on Finance and the House Ways and Means Committee.
“We couldn’t agree more with the President, IRS Commissioner Douglas Shulman, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, and the bipartisan co-sponsors of the legislation that there’s no better time than Tax Day 2010 to take this outdated law finally off the books,” says Johnston.
Both bills have substantial support, with 190 co-sponsors in the House and 8 in the Senate for the Cell Tax Fairness Act, while the MOBILE Cell Phone Act enjoys the backing of 208 House co-sponsors and 72 in the Senate.
Consumers also clearly favor the legislation. In a MyWireless.org national consumer poll that was released in March 2010 with McLaughlin & Associates along with Penn, Schoen & Berland Associates, we found:
- 92% think that all federal, state and city taxes, fees & surcharges should be clearly itemized on their monthly wireless bill.
- 89% think the monthly tax rate for wireless should be lower or the same as taxes paid on other goods and services, which is approximately 6%.
- 72% of consumers polled favored Congress passing a 5-year freeze on all new, discriminatory state and local wireless taxes & fees.
- 73% consider the value of their wireless service and choices, per the price they pay and benefits it provides, to be either an excellent or good value.
- 91% of wireless consumers are either satisfied or extremely satisfied with their wireless services and choices.
- 87% agreed that ‘my cell phone makes my life easier.’
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MyWireless.org® is a nonpartisan non-profit advocacy organization, made up of wireless consumers, businesses and community leaders from around the country, supporting reasonable pro-consumer wireless policies. To learn more, please visit www.mywireless.org.