Wyden To Push Wireless Tax Moratorium
Sens. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., and Olympia Snowe, R-Maine, plan to reintroduce legislation Thursday that would grant a five-year moratorium on new telecommunications taxes. Currently, telecom services are taxed at a rate that rivals - and in some places exceeds - taxes on tobacco and alcohol. Their Mobile Wireless Tax Fairness Act will also be cosponsored by Sens. Robert Menendez, D-N.J.; John McCain, R-Ariz.; and Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y. The measure stalled in the Senate Finance Committee last year. Related bills were introduced in the 110th Congress by McCain and Reps. Mary Bono Mack, R-Calif., and Zoe Lofgren, D-Calif. Lofgren also reintroduced her legislation in March.
Upon introduction of his identical bill last session, Wyden stressed that it would not impact a single current tax that has been levied by a state or locality nor would it remove a dollar from their communal coffers. "What it will do is guarantee our wireless network providers protection from even greater taxation at a time when we are asking them to implement the largest technology upgrade in history -- an upgrade that will bring economically important, true broadband speeds to wireless customers for the first time," he said. "There are lots of problems with the way federal, state and local taxes are levied on telecommunications services. This legislation addresses only one of those problems, but it is a big one," he said.
Wyden's prior bill won support from CTIA-The Wireless Association and other groups like FreedomWorks, a conservative nonprofit advocacy group led by ex-House Majority Leader Dick Armey, R-Texas. At the time, CTIA CEO Steve Largent called the current taxation regime "unfair and discriminatory" and said that Wyden and Snowe's states are examples of places that have reasonable taxes. He pointed out that the average U.S. wireless customer pays more than 15 percent of his or her monthly bill in taxes and fees -- more than twice the rate imposed on other goods subject to sales tax. "This is an indefensible level of taxation for most any product, let alone one that allows millions of Americans to constantly stay connected with the world around them," Largent said.
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