Americans For Tax Reform Call For An End To Tax On Talking

by Mike Godfrey, Tax-news.com, Washington

02 May 2001

Americans for Tax Reform (ATR), a non-partisan coalition of taxpayers and taxpayer groups who oppose all federal and state tax increases, have called for a peaceful resolution to the Spanish-American War, more than 100 years after it took place. More precisely, the organisation is once again seeking the abolition of an outdated federal tax on telephones which was instituted in the US in 1898 to fund the war effort.

Back then, telephones were considered a luxury, therefore the excise tax on telephones was essentially a tax on the rich. The war lasted four months, but the tax celebrated its 103rd birthday last week. The tax adds 3 per cent to the American phone bill and ATR believes that the tax has become increasingly regressive and disproportionately affects the working poor.

Grover Norquist, president of ATR, said in a statement: 'We should end this war without further pain and suffering by the American people. Whether it's a 10-year-old little girl calling her grandmother to say 'happy birthday' or a mother calling her son at college, we shouldn't have bizarre tax laws that make human contact more difficult.'

Last year, a bill to abolish the tax passed both houses of Congress overwhelmingly but was vetoed by then-President Bill Clinton. This year, the Help Eliminate the Levy on Locution Act (HELLO), represented by bills S. 234 in the Senate and H. 236 in the House, seeks to abolish the telephone tax once and for all.

Mr Norquist concluded: 'The communications industry is, piece by piece, one of the most heavily taxed areas of the economy. We need to simplify the tax code. Getting rid of the Tax on Talking is an easy call and is simply the right thing to do.'

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