New Hampshire Underground

New Hampshire Underground => General Discussion => Topic started by: Dave Ridley on October 18, 2005, 11:14 AM NHFT

Title: Phone exise tax protest
Post by: Dave Ridley on October 18, 2005, 11:14 AM NHFT
Here is a way to protest your federal taxes without getting chased around by the IRS or, apparently, much of anyone.

3% of your phone bill goes to the feds.? So...Just deduct 3% from your phone bill and attach a letter to the phone company explaining you are doing so to protest (whatever it is the feds are doing that you don't like).

Details on this technique are at:

http://www.warresisters.org/how_to_resist.htm
Title: Re: Phone exise tax protest - all of us can do it
Post by: Fluff and Stuff on October 18, 2005, 11:51 AM NHFT
Quote from: DadaOrwell on October 18, 2005, 11:14 AM NHFT
3% of your phone bill goes to the feds.? So...Just deduct 3% from your phone bill and attach a letter to the phone company explaining you are doing so to protest (whatever it is the feds are doing that you don't like).

Good idea.  Here are the details,
http://www.hanguponwar.org/
Title: Re: Phone exise tax protest - all of us can do it
Post by: polyanarch on October 18, 2005, 12:00 PM NHFT
Try doing that to your cell phone provider...

Hello?  can you hear me now????

Hello????????


I don't have a land line.   Why pay taxes on old technology that you don't even need?
Title: Re: Phone exise tax protest - all of us can do it
Post by: 9thmoon on October 18, 2005, 01:21 PM NHFT
Quote from: polyanarch on October 18, 2005, 12:00 PM NHFT
Try doing that to your cell phone provider...

Hello?? can you hear me now????

Hello????????


I don't have a land line.? ?Why pay taxes on old technology that you don't even need?

I have no idea why anyone has a land line any more, unless they live way out in the country with no cell coverage.  I guess I must have one, because I have DSL, but besides the phone plugged in in the bedroom for 911 calls, I've never used the voice line! 
Title: Re: Phone exise tax protest - all of us can do it
Post by: president on October 18, 2005, 01:30 PM NHFT
Quote from: 9thmoon on October 18, 2005, 01:21 PM NHFT
I have no idea why anyone has a land line any more, unless they live way out in the country with no cell coverage.
May your chains rest lightly upon you
Title: Re: Phone exise tax protest - all of us can do it
Post by: lildog on October 18, 2005, 01:55 PM NHFT
I had been thinking earlier today about tax protests and had a suggestion for you all? the free state group should get anyone who knows anything about taxes to help volunteer looking over people?s taxes to find every single little loophole there is.  From child exemption to barn exemptions? help teach everyone how to get the government to take less.
Title: Re: Phone exise tax protest - all of us can do it
Post by: Dreepa on October 18, 2005, 01:56 PM NHFT
Quote from: 9thmoon on October 18, 2005, 01:21 PM NHFT
Try doing that to your cell phone provider...

Hello?? can you hear me now????

Hello????????


I don't have a land line.? ?Why pay taxes on old technology that you don't even need?
Cell phones outnumber landlines in Finland now.

I haven't had a landline in over 3 years.

I have no idea why anyone has a land line any more, unless they live way out in the country with no cell coverage.? I guess I must have one, because I have DSL, but besides the phone plugged in in the bedroom for 911 calls, I've never used the voice line!?
Title: Re: Phone exise tax protest - all of us can do it
Post by: Fluff and Stuff on October 18, 2005, 04:15 PM NHFT
Quote from: lildog on October 18, 2005, 01:55 PM NHFT
I had been thinking earlier today about tax protests and had a suggestion for you all? the free state group

What is the free state group?
Title: Re: Phone exise tax protest - all of us can do it
Post by: Dreepa on October 18, 2005, 04:17 PM NHFT
Quote from: TN-FSP on October 18, 2005, 04:15 PM NHFT
Quote from: lildog on October 18, 2005, 01:55 PM NHFT
I had been thinking earlier today about tax protests and had a suggestion for you all? the free state group

What is the free state group?
There is none... he thinks we should start it up.
Title: Re: Phone exise tax protest
Post by: Dave Ridley on October 18, 2005, 07:08 PM NHFT
does the exise tax apply to cell phones?
Title: Re: Phone exise tax protest
Post by: Kat Kanning on October 18, 2005, 07:45 PM NHFT
Vonage does one on the voice over IP. 
Title: Re: Phone exise tax protest
Post by: Russell Kanning on October 19, 2005, 08:29 AM NHFT
Quote from: 9thmoon on October 18, 2005, 01:21 PM NHFTbut besides the phone plugged in in the bedroom for 911 calls, I've never used the voice line!
What are "911 calls"? ;)
Title: Re: Phone exise tax protest
Post by: Russell Kanning on October 19, 2005, 08:34 AM NHFT
Quote from: lildog on October 18, 2005, 01:55 PM NHFT
I had been thinking earlier today about tax protests and had a suggestion for you all... the free state group should get anyone who knows anything about taxes to help volunteer looking over people's taxes to find every single little loophole there is. From child exemption to barn exemptions... help teach everyone how to get the government to take less.
The Free State Project has no ability or interest in any activity, but we can help.
I can help you achieve whatever level of tax avoidance you are comfortable with. :)
Title: Re: Phone exise tax protest
Post by: polyanarch on October 19, 2005, 09:21 AM NHFT
Quote from: russellkanning on October 19, 2005, 08:34 AM NHFT

I can help you achieve whatever level of tax avoidance you are comfortable with. :)

I like the way you think Russell!
Title: Re: Phone exise tax protest
Post by: Russell Kanning on October 19, 2005, 12:47 PM NHFT
And if people don't like paying this tax .... then go for it. :)
Title: Re: Phone exise tax protest - all of us can do it
Post by: tracysaboe on October 21, 2005, 09:50 PM NHFT
Quote from: 9thmoon on October 18, 2005, 01:21 PM NHFT
Quote from: polyanarch on October 18, 2005, 12:00 PM NHFT
Try doing that to your cell phone provider...

Hello?  can you hear me now????

Hello????????


I don't have a land line.   Why pay taxes on old technology that you don't even need?

I have no idea why anyone has a land line any more, unless they live way out in the country with no cell coverage.  I guess I must have one, because I have DSL, but besides the phone plugged in in the bedroom for 911 calls, I've never used the voice line! 

I only pay about $17/month for my land-line. It's way cheeper then cell-coverage. (Of course it doesn't hurt that the company I work for is owned by a local phone/cable/internet company. Otherwise it'd be around $25.)

But even that's cheeper then a cell phone. They're around $40/month.

If I actually needed long distance, then a cell might make more sense. But right now I have no use for such doo-dads.

Tracy
Title: Re: Phone exise tax protest
Post by: Kat Kanning on October 22, 2005, 07:26 AM NHFT
Cell phones are eeeeeevil!   :P
Title: Re: Phone exise tax protest
Post by: Fluff and Stuff on October 24, 2005, 07:58 AM NHFT
Quote from: katdillon on October 22, 2005, 07:26 AM NHFT
Cell phones are eeeeeevil!? ?:P

Cell Phones rock.  They help free you, though not from government.
Title: Re: Phone exise tax protest
Post by: Kat Kanning on October 24, 2005, 08:08 AM NHFT
They don't free you from having phone calls!  ;)
Title: Re: Phone exise tax protest
Post by: YeahItsMeJP on October 24, 2005, 08:24 AM NHFT
I already don't pay this tax. I started not paying it in 2003 as a protest against the war. My phone company back then was AT&T and they provided a little box on their invoice to check off if you refused to pay the tax. I like them alot needless to say. However, now I have Verizon and it was a little harder to convince them that I was just not going to pay the tax. But I won anyway.

I find it satisfying to save up all that money I would normally be forced to pay in taxes and giving it my favortie charities. Boy does that irk my statist friends who like to jump down my throat about being greedy, but can;t since I usually don't keep the money anyway. ;-)

JP
Title: Re: Phone exise tax protest
Post by: Dreepa on December 13, 2005, 11:44 AM NHFT
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2005/12/04/BUGG2G1PMA1.DTL&hw=phone+tax&sn=001&sc=1000
Title: Re: Phone exise tax protest
Post by: Fluff and Stuff on December 13, 2005, 10:18 PM NHFT
Is this the same thing?

By Dennis Cauchon, USA TODAY
Tue Dec 13, 7:02 AM ET

http://news.yahoo.com/s/usatoday/20051213/tc_usatoday/cellphonerulingscouldmeanbillionsintaxrefunds

Phone customers are due $9 billion in tax refunds and a 3% cut in wireless phone and long-distance bills, according to a series of federal court decisions.

ADVERTISEMENT

But the federal government continues to collect the tax and requires so much paperwork for refunds that only big corporations are likely to benefit.


On Friday, a court in Washington, D.C., became the third federal appeals court since May to void the tax. Two other federal appeals courts, covering seven states, have ruled the tax unlawful, and cases are pending elsewhere in the nation's 13 appeals courts. In all, nine federal courts have ruled that a 3% federal tax doesn't apply to phone calls that are priced only by how long a person talks - not by how far the call travels.


That means cellular phones, Internet phone service and about one-third of long distance calls would be exempt from the tax. The wireless industry estimates that consumers would save about $4.5 billion a year. Taxpayers also would be due three years of refunds - about $9 billion.


The cellphone industry wants the tax removed immediately from bills and the money refunded. "Our customers shouldn't be paying a tax that courts have repeatedly found illegal," says Steve Largent, president of CTIA-The Wireless Association and a former Republican congressman.


The Bush administration has not said whether it will appeal to the Supreme Court. "It's a matter subject to litigation, and that's all we can say,"     Treasury Department spokesman Taylor Griffin says.


An appeals court decision in May voided the law in Florida, Georgia and Alabama. The government did not appeal but continues to require phone companies to collect the tax in those states and pass it on to the federal government.


"It sounds absurd, but the law is written so that the government can keep collecting a tax even though it's been ruled unlawful," says Hank Levine, a lawyer representing businesses that challenged the tax. Federal law makes it nearly impossible to get an injunction to stop the government from collecting a tax, he says.


The average consumer would be entitled to a refund about the size of the average $49.52 monthly bill paid by the USA's 195 million wireless subscribers. However, consumers would be required to seek refunds individually, documenting how much they paid each quarter in separate claims.


The time limit for refunds is three years. A person entitled to a $50 refund would have to fill out forms a dozen times to get the three years' worth of refunds permitted under tax law. Collecting records and preparing the form would take about seven hours.


"I don't think many people will make the effort," says Brad Waterman, a tax attorney in Washington.


Big businesses would benefit most from refunds, especially those with large international phone bills. Convergys, which operates call centers around the world, has filed for a refund of more than $6 million. OfficeMax, a retailer, seeks $380,000.