How much Tax are you paying on your Cell phone bill?
When you buy an iPod or a book in the store in US, on an average you must be paying around 6% as sales tax.  Do you know how much Tax are you paying on your Mobile bill? If you think, its about the same, then you are up for a big suprise and shock, unless you are in Nevada. As per an article in Wireless Wave , a quarterly trade magazine by CTIA,  on an average in US, you pay around 17% in taxes and fees on your Mobile bill.
Nebraska being the most expensive with taxes and fees topping at 24.6% and Nevada is the lowest with just 7%, which is even lower than the sales tax of 7.1%.
Do you know that you paid 3% of your Mobile bill every month to fund 'Spanish American War' fought in 1898? You read it right, Spanish American War in 1898? Over a 108 years ago. Its called, FET (Federal Excise Tax) which was originally introduced to fund the war in 1898, but was never repealed until five different US Circuit courts of Appeals have ruled in favor of customers recently. Good news is that You need not pay FET tax after July 31, 2006. If we are lucky, we might get refund of last three years' FET too !
Its quite unfortunate that the Federal, State and local bodies still think that Wireless service is a luxury and hence customers shall pay more taxes and fees for the service. Read the article for more details on the taxation. And join  http://www.mywireless.org to fight against 'more' upcoming taxes.
Little numbers for those interested. As per CTIA reports, there are around 218 Million Wireless subscribers, with a total population of around 295 Million people. (Around 40 Million are under the age of 10). US accounts for around 11% of total World Mobile Subscribers but accounts for around 20% of World's revenue from Mobile Services. On average, a US Mobile Subscriber pays $53 (excluding tax).
Nebraska being the most expensive with taxes and fees topping at 24.6% and Nevada is the lowest with just 7%, which is even lower than the sales tax of 7.1%.
Do you know that you paid 3% of your Mobile bill every month to fund 'Spanish American War' fought in 1898? You read it right, Spanish American War in 1898? Over a 108 years ago. Its called, FET (Federal Excise Tax) which was originally introduced to fund the war in 1898, but was never repealed until five different US Circuit courts of Appeals have ruled in favor of customers recently. Good news is that You need not pay FET tax after July 31, 2006. If we are lucky, we might get refund of last three years' FET too !
Its quite unfortunate that the Federal, State and local bodies still think that Wireless service is a luxury and hence customers shall pay more taxes and fees for the service. Read the article for more details on the taxation. And join  http://www.mywireless.org to fight against 'more' upcoming taxes.
Little numbers for those interested. As per CTIA reports, there are around 218 Million Wireless subscribers, with a total population of around 295 Million people. (Around 40 Million are under the age of 10). US accounts for around 11% of total World Mobile Subscribers but accounts for around 20% of World's revenue from Mobile Services. On average, a US Mobile Subscriber pays $53 (excluding tax).
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