This is post #100 here at The One-Handed Economist. Thanks to the one guy still reading for hanging around during my impromptu nearly month-long break.
In any case, Don Luskin points to this post by Jim Glass over at Scrivener about the Federal Excise Tax. That’s the annoying few dollar charge on your phone bill from the Feds. It’s apparently worth about $9 billion to them annually, and is entirely illegal to collect on most phone plans because they do not charge by distance and duration. They’re either flat rate, or duration only. So, you can stop paying it without consequence, and file for FET refunds here. And, contra Glass, this is the response I received when asking Verizon to take the charge off my bill:
Several recent federal court decisions have said that long distance services are not subject to the 3% Federal Excise Tax. While the court decisions are significant, they do not impact or release Verizon Wireless’s obligation to bill and collect the FET each month. Until the IRS tells us that we can stop collecting the FET, we will continue to apply the FET on all applicable charges billed to our customers.
Actually, you don’t. There’s that whole “not applicable” bit, which means that the tax is illegal and thusly invalidates your need to collect it regardless of what the IRS tells you. You see, the IRS is empowered through acts of Congress and if the laws governing the IRS are said not to apply to, say, cellular phone service by the Courts, well, you can stop collecting it. Anyway, for more on the whole concept of judicial review, I would direct Verizon’s customer support guy to Mabury v. Madison. I shan’t be paying the FET any longer, that’s for damn sure.
Stickin’ it to the man, $1.34 at a time.
