Cities find new source of revenue: cellphone taxes
We're going to go out on a limb and guess that you're probably already not a fan of cellphone taxes, but the New York Times had a little piece yesterday about how city governments with budget deficits are starting to pile on the wireless sales taxes and levies in order to make up any revenue shortfalls. The average cellphone user already pays about $8.75 a month in federal and state taxes, fees, and surcharges, but the Times notes how Baltimore, for example, is adding an extra $3.50 per month onto the tabs of the city's 238,000 wireless subscribers. Ironically it's the wireless carriers, which themselves have a shady history when it comes to tacking "miscellaneous" taxes and fees on to their customers' bills, that are leading the charge against cities and states collecting special taxes for wireless service. They don't like anything that makes wireless service more expensive, at least not when the money is going into somebody else's pocket, and so Cingular, Verizon, Sprint, and T-Mobile have filed a lawsuit against the city of Baltimore (as well as Montgomery Country, which has its own wireless tax), arguing that the $3.50 fee is a sales tax which the city does not have the authority to collect.
[Via The Wireless Weblog]
