MyWireless.org Supports Tax Fairness on Cell Phone Bills

Around the country, Americans are rushing to meet the
deadline
for filing their federal and state income tax returns.
MyWireless.org,
a national consumer advocacy coalition, is speaking out on behalf
of
taxpayers by calling out for consumer relief from new,
discriminatory
state and local wireless taxes & fees, and for the repeal of
an archaic
tax regulation pertaining to wireless use.

MyWireless.org
supports the passage of two pieces of legislation, the "Cell Tax
Fairness Act of 2009" and the "Mobile Cell Phone Act of 2009."

They claim that consumers clearly favor the legislation. In a MyWireless.org
national consumer poll that was released in March 2010 with
McLaughlin &
Associates along with Penn, Schoen & Berland Associates, we
found:

92% think that all federal, state and city taxes, fees
&
surcharges should be clearly itemized on their monthly wireless
bill.
89% think the monthly tax rate for wireless should be
lower or
the same as taxes paid on other goods and services, which is
approximately 6%.
72% of consumers polled favored Congress passing a 5-year

freeze on all new, discriminatory state and local wireless taxes
&
fees.
73% consider the value of their wireless service and
choices,
per the price they pay and benefits it provides, to be either an

excellent or good value.
91% of wireless consumers are either satisfied or
extremely
satisfied with their wireless services and choices.
87% agreed that 'my cell phone makes my life easier.'

The Cell Tax Fairness Act of 2009 has been introduced in the
United
States Senate (S. 1192) by Senators Ron Wyden (D-OR) and Olympia
Snowe
(R-ME), and in the U.S. House of Representatives (H.R. 1521) by
Representatives Zoe Lofgren (D-CA) and Trent Franks (R-AZ). The
legislation calls for a 5-year moratorium to be placed on any new
and
discriminatory wireless taxes & fees at the state and local
levels. The
bills are currently being considered in the Senate Committee on
Finance
and the House Judiciary Committee's Subcommittee on Commercial and

Administrative Law.

"Wireless consumers are paying on average about 16% in combined
monthly
taxes & fees, and passing the Cell Tax Fairness Act would be a
good step
in the right direction in taking such an unreasonably heavy load
off the
backs of the hundreds of millions of American wireless users,"
says
Brian Johnston, director of Advocacy for MyWireless.org. Johnston
also
points out that the average annual national consumer tax debt on
wireless is approximately $21 billion, and that wireless taxes are
often
double or triple those of other taxable goods and services.

The other legislation MyWireless.org is urging Congress to pass,
the
"MOBILE Cell Phone Act of 2009," was introduced in the Senate (S.
144)
by Senators John Kerry (D-MA) and John Ensign (R-NV), and in the
House
(H.R. 690) by Representatives Earl Pomeroy (D-ND) and Sam Johnson
(R-TX). It would remove employer-provided wireless devices from
I.R.S.
'Listed Property' rules. Listed Property means that current I.R.S.
tax
code considers an employer-provided wireless device to be a fringe

benefit, which means employees must keep detailed ledgers of
personal
calls and communications made from that work device, and then
report
them for I.R.S. taxation. The White House, Treasury Department and

I.R.S. itself agree that this tax law is outdated and needs to be
repealed. The bills are currently being considered in the Senate
Committee on Finance and the House Ways and Means Committee.

"We couldn't agree more with the President, IRS Commissioner
Douglas
Shulman, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, and the bipartisan
co-sponsors of the legislation that there's no better time than
Tax Day
2010 to take this outdated law finally off the books," says
Johnston.

Both bills have substantial support, with 190 co-sponsors in the
House
and 8 in the Senate for the Cell Tax Fairness Act, while the
MOBILE Cell
Phone Act enjoys the backing of 208 House co-sponsors and 72 in
the
Senate.