A Few Cheers and an Answer for Scott Woolley

Forbes: How To Duck Cell Phone Taxes

Cell phones have not been proven to cause cancer, so why exactly are they taxed like they do?

Steve Largent, head of the main cell phone lobbying group, recently complained to Congress that the average 16.8% in combined federal, state and local taxes his customers pay has traditionally been levied on products like cigarettes. Americans pay an average of just 6.9% for typical non-carcinogenic goods and services.

Exorbitant cell phone taxes may seem like one of life's annoyances you just can't do anything about. In fact, as I recently discovered, you can.

So far, cities and towns have gotten away with treating the country's 182 million cell phone subscribers as easy marks. Cell phones taxes increased nine times faster than taxes on other goods and services between January 2003 and April 2004, according to one industry study. In a particularly egregious case, Baltimore just hit its residents with a new $3.50 per month tax.

But ever-higher cell phone taxes are likely to have another effect: More people will go to the effort of dodging them.

That's what I did. A year after moving to Los Angeles from New York, I was reading my Verizon Wireless bill and noticed I was still paying New York taxes. New York, as it happens, has the highest state and local taxes in the country: 16.2% (if you add federal charges, it's 22.2%). I estimated I was giving my former city and state about $75 per year they didn't deserve.

Damn straight.

He's got some info that could be useful. I'll let you read it to find out. He does have a few questions, though.

I also felt a bit guilty. I had established that is was practical to dodge high cell phone taxes. But was it legal? And was it ethical?

© 2005 Forbes.com Inc.™ All Rights Reserved

First answer: No. He establishes this himself later on in the article by looking up the Mobile Telecommunications Sourcing Act.

Second answer: Yes. Anyone who says you have a moral duty to pay taxes is an apologist for government theft. You don't have an obligation to pay taxes any more than you have an obligation to pay a burglar to leave your home theater system alone when he arrives to take the jewelry. It is your money and you are right to want to keep that scarce resource under your control and in your hands as you see fit.

Link via Sploid.

Posted by Drizzten at June 09, 2005 10:48 AM