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Politics : PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: DuckTapeSunroof who wrote (681150)	5/1/2005 8:33:08 AM
From: Hope Praytochange	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 769667

If the tax were limited to so-called telephone land lines, the U.S. government could be excused for balking at the cash cow. President Bill Clinton vetoed a similar attempt in 2000 to repeal the tax. ======================== U.S. Taxpayers still funding 1898 war US$5B annually: Spanish-American war tax repeal 'long overdue' Peter Morton Financial Post April 30, 2005 WASHINGTON - A handful of U.S. politicians believe it is finally time for Americans to stop paying taxes to cover the cost of the Spanish-American war. The U.S. Congress passed a law in 1898 imposing a 3% telecommunications tax on the then 1,300 telephones in the country. The temporary surcharge, aimed at offsetting the costs of the US$250-million war against Spain following the sinking of the USS Maine in Havana harbour, was seen as a luxury tax since only wealthy Americans had the advanced telecommunications system. Yet 107 years later, the excise tax remains in effect, bringing in at least US$5 billion a year to U.S. government coffers from the 137 million residential and commercial telephone lines in the country by taxing local and long distance services. "Repealing the Spanish-American War tax is long overdue," says Grover Norquist, president of the Americans for Tax Reform that is supporting a new bill introduced this week in the House of Representatives to lift the tax. "We've been stealing money from telephone users for 107 years to fund a war it took us four months to win," he said. "Getting rid of this relic is a major priority of the taxpayer movement." The bill from Republican Rep. Gary Miller from California, equivalent to a private member's bill in Canada and called HR 1898, would repeal the tax that was made permanent in 1990. It has 40 co-sponsors in the House. "I think this bill has the best chance ever," says Christopher Butler who is also with the Washington-based tax reform lobby group. If the tax were limited to so-called telephone land lines, the U.S. government could be excused for balking at the cash cow. President Bill Clinton vetoed a similar attempt in 2000 to repeal the tax. But U.S. politicians are worried the tax may be extended to the Internet and the emerging VoIP, the Voice over IP telephone service. "I would hate to see the federal government put Americans at a global competitive disadvantage through such a harmful tax," said Sen. George Allen who just introduced another bill designed to keep the U.S. government away from taxing the Internet. "Today, 200 million Americans use the Internet, not just plain old telephone service," he said. "Over 55 % of them surf the Net on high-speed, broadband connections." Mr. Allen's bill, called Federal Internet Tax Prohibition Act of 2005, would make permanent current restrictions on federal taxing of communications over the Internet. His move was welcomed by the Washington-based United States Telecom Association, which represents 1,300 local and long-distance communications companies. "This legislation will permanently end the unnecessary, burdensome taxes that limit choice and often require consumers to pay more for one high-speed Internet service over another," said Walter McCormick, its president. Repealing temporary taxes has proved to be difficult. A temporary withholding income tax, introduced in the U.S. to help pay for its share of the Second World War, has yet to be repealed. And a temporary 0.2% increase in U.S. federal unemployment insurance trust fund introduced in 1976 has yet to die even though it was suppose to end in 1997. Congress recently extended it to 2007. The fund has gone from US$4.9- billion in 1987 to an estimated US$41.6- billion in 2003. Mr. Butler said that does not include the dozens of temporary taxes imposed at the state level in past years. "Undoubtedly, there are a huge number of those," he said. © National Post 2005