In 2003, cellphone users paid an average 15 percent in state and federal taxes. Today, the national average remains at 15 percent, despite the demise in 2006 of the 3 percent federal excise tax mobile users were being charged. Why? State legislatures and the FCC have continued to bump taxes and fees, going back to the well of mobile users-now a quarter billion strong in the U.S.-again and again. Cellphone users are taxed at roughly twice the national average for other goods and services for an annual total of $21 billion.
There's hope for some relief … albeit not much chance of a rollback. Presidential candidate John McCain last week called for a ban on new cellphone taxes. And while that may just be campaign rhetoric, a bipartisan duo in Congress is taking the first steps toward giving mobile users a break. Last week, Reps. Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.) and Chris Cannon (R-Utah) actually introduced a wireless tax moratorium bill.
Today's Wall Street Journal has an excellent opinion piece on the issue. Check out the full version of the article.