Congress should legislate a 5-year hiatus on new wireless taxes. That is the recommendation of U.S. Reps. Zoe Lofgren (D-CA) and Chris Cannon (R-UT) in a new bill called the Cell Tax Fairness Act.
The measure received strong support from the Cellular Telecommunications Industry Association (CTIA).
Rather than just freezing any new taxes, “Policymakers should roll back taxes,” said CTIA Chairman and Verizon Wireless CEO Lowell McAdam, in a statement. About 15% of customer bills are already devoted to taxes, he said.
“Keeping wireless taxes at a fair and reasonable level is critical to growing the economy and making the workforce more productive, efficient and informed,” said CTIA CEO and President Steve Largent. “We should do everything in our power to remove the roadblocks – such as excessive, discriminatory wireless taxes – that stand in the way of progress, and the Cell Tax Fairness legislation introduced today in the House is a positive step in the right direction.”
A similar show of support came today from MyWireless.org, described on its Website as “a national non-profit consumer advocacy organization giving wireless consumers a powerful and unified voice to protect the freedom and security they enjoy with wireless services” – although the group was founded by and is controlled by the CTIA.
