🚀 go-pugleaf

Teresa Ziakas wrote:
> 
> That's almost as bad as the local villages passing Telecommunications
> taxes.  Hoffman Estates just passed a 5% of your TOTAL phone bill -
> in liu of vehicle stickers...  Luckily my internet phone number is in
> Band A; which means it's an untimed call.  It's going to kill people who
> have to dial a location which costs money; which includes faxes,
> pagers, etc...  Instead of a $15 vehicle sticker, it now means it could be
> closer to $150 a year due to the 5%...
> --
> Teresa Ziakas
> ilziakas@enteract.com
> http://www.enteract.com/~ilziakas/tupperware

The sad matter is that states (and as you point out municipalities) see
the Internet as a hugh honeypot of revenue. Florida has set the precedent
that the state HAS the authority to add a tax. I doubt if we will see any
challenge to it since it is an extension of existing taxing authority.

This will hurt the smaller ISPs. They will at some time in the future be
required to know the tax rate from where the call originated to their POP,
compute the tax, send it to the state, county, municipality and bill the
customer. I doubt if that is built into the cost structure. Even the larger 
services will have problems. A VP at AOL said this week that it would be 
"virtually impossible for AOL to comply" with every potential taxing body.

Stay tuned.