New taxes could slam Net phone users
Anne Broache writes in C|Net News:
A new proposal to federal regulators has once again raised the possibility of new taxes being levied on Internet phone users.
Buried in a 27-page public notice released last week by the Federal Communications Commission's federal-state joint board on universal service is a call to force more companies to pay taxes into the Universal Service Fund.
"It is imperative that...all carriers that utilize the public switched telephone network are required to contribute to the USF as soon as possible," Robert Nelson, a now-retired Michigan Public Service commissioner, wrote in his proposal. "The dramatic decrease in traditional long-distance wireline traffic and the increase in the use of VoIP and the deployment of IP networks has changed the dynamics of USF so irrevocably that immediate attention to the issue is required."
That would effectively mean new taxes on customers of Net telephone companies that don't currently pay into the USF. Companies that already pay into the fund indirectly may have to raise their rates because their contribution would likely have to increase, Nelson said in a phone interview Tuesday.
posted by Fergie @ 8/23/2005 03:38:00 PM
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