[Infowarrior] - U.S. Treasury mulls end of phone excise tax - WSJ

[Richard Forno]

U.S. Treasury mulls end of phone excise tax - WSJ
Fri Apr 14, 2006 5:54am ET10

NEW YORK, April 14 (Reuters) - The U.S. Treasury Department is developing a
plan to discontinue a 3 percent federal excise tax on long-distance and
wireless telephone calls and to refund billions of dollars to consumers and
businesses that have paid it, the Wall Street Journal said on Friday.

"Government officials are holding closely guarded discussions on how to best
handle the repayment process as well as mitigate the impact of about $60
billion in potential refunds and lost federal revenues over the next five
years," the Journal said.

The planned end of the tax follows more than a half dozen court rulings in
recent years that the government is misapplying the tax. The courts have
ordered refunds to companies that sued over the charges.

Rather than continue to fight similar pending lawsuits, the Treasury has
decided to concede defeat and discontinue the tax, the report said, citing
government officials.

© Reuters 2006. All Rights Reserved.\

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