Congressman Ted Deutch has signed on as a cosponsor of H.R. 1002, the Wireless Tax Fairness Act of 2011. As the FCC explained in the National Broadband Plan, “wireless broadband is poised to become a key platform for innovation in the United States over the next decade.”  Expanding investment and access to advanced wireless networks will be a major driver of economic growth and opportunity.  This is especially true for minority and low-income Americans, who typically use wireless devices to access the Internet even more than other Americans. Unfortunately, targeted state and local taxes continue to drive up the cost of wireless broadband and other mobile services.  On average, wireless customers now pay 16.3% in taxes and fees, more than twice the average rate of 7.4% on other goods and services.  In many localities, this cumulative tax burden is even worse, including Tallahassee, where it's 18.2%. It’s counter-productive to impose such a punitive tax rate on wireless networks, whose expansion is critical to economic growth.  Furthermore, this disparity between the taxes on wireless versus other goods and services amounts to a regressive tax burden – it falls disproportionately on lower-income Americans, who tend to rely more exclusively on wireless devices for telephone and Internet access and who pay a greater percentage of their income in wireless taxes.  It may also discourage seniors on fixed budgets from purchasing wireless service. H.R. 1002 would halt this trend by imposing a temporary, five-year freeze on new discriminatory taxes that are imposed only on wireless services.  Importantly, it would not take away any existing revenue from state or local governments. Separate wireless taxes are a legacy of the days when telephone service was a regulated utility.  This legislation would simply create a period of tax stability, encouraging state and local governments to modernize their communications tax structures.

You can read H.R. 1002, the Wireless Tax Fairness Act of 2011, here.