Bush Refuses to Fund War!

The Spanish-American War that is! LOL!

Spanish-American War Tax To End

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The Spanish-American War was fought in 1898 and lasted less than eight months, but Americans still pay an excise tax on phone service that was imposed to finance it. Last week, a mere 108 years after the end of that conflict, the Bush Administration moved to terminate the levy, says the Wall Street Journal.

Treasury Secretary John Snow said the Internal Revenue Service will no longer collect the 3 percent federal excise tax on long-distance phone calls and will offer refunds for the past three years. The courts have forced its hand with repeated rulings that the tax on long-distance is illegal in a telecom world in which calls are no longer priced based on distance. The IRS will continue to collect the tax on local calls, but Snow did express support for the idea of Congress passing legislation to repeal the tax entirely.

According to the Journal:

* That would be the best outcome, and not just because a future administration might opt to begin collecting the tax again and restart the court battles. So long as the tax exists, so will the political temptation to expand its scope and turn it into yet another revenue stream for the federal till. A Joint Tax Committee report issued last year suggested extending the excise tax to "all data communication services," including cable modems, cellular and DSL Internet connections.

* The federal excise tax was intended to target "the rich," who at the time were the only ones who could afford a telephone. Yet our tax code still considers phones "luxury" items. The last time Congress came close to ending this charade was 2000, when majorities in both the House and the Senate voted for repeal, which President Clinton vetoed, says the Journal.

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Did we have phones back then, I guess this is just one tax that is uncovered how many more is out their we don't know about.

You have to laugh and shake your head at the same time over this article. You're absolutely right, Falcon. There are a whole lot of laws on the books that are outdated and sometimes outrageously ridiculous across the breadth of the U.S.

Hey, maybe I can convince the government to give me a grant to research more of these money-siphoning laws foisted on the tax payers! Then y'all can grumble at me for a chance to siphon our hard-earned money! :D

I believe there is a law against whistling while walking your pet duck on Sundays but I forget which state it's in.

Brian,

Don't know about that, but in Minnesota "a person may not cross state lines with a duck atop his head".

http://www.dumblaws.com/laws/united-states/minnesota/

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Wallis wrote;
Hey, maybe I can convince the government to give me a grant to research more of these money-siphoning laws foisted on the tax payers! Then y'all can grumble at me for a chance to siphon our hard-earned money! :D

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Why would one need a grant to do reseach, just do it and tell the world, like us guys here, I am sure we can take care of the rest of the problem.