Cell phone charge question....taxes???

[GtPrOjEcTX]

Alright. I signed up for the employee plan ~4-5 years ago for a straight $15.00 a month through SprintPCS. Ever since I've been getting more and more taxes added on to it. Now it went up some more. Here's a list of the taxes, surcharges and fees.

Taxes
Federal Tax 0.53
Indiana State Sales Tax - Service and Usage 0.92
Indiana State Wireless 911 Surcharge 0.65

Surcharges and Fees
Indiana State Gross Receipts Tax 0.22
Federal Universal Service Fund 0.35
Federal E911 0.40
Federal Wireless Number Pooling and Portability 1.10

Total $4.17

That's an additional $4.17 every month that shouldn't be there IMO.

Seriously, what the heck are all these for? Are you getting charged taxes as well in addition to your monthly plan's fee???

 

I would recommend calling your State AG or FTC office - they'll be able to explain it to you, or maybe even investigate Sprint PCS. One thing that I know is true is that you won't get a straight answer from Sprint.

 

[Gyrene]

I only pay ~$1.50 in taxes, but I live in TN, so state taxes may vary.

 

[Vic]

Yep. My home phone bill last month was more than 40% taxes.

 

Originally posted by: Vic
Yep. My home phone bill last month was more than 40% taxes.

Are you serious? Where do you live, England?! Honestly, I'd cry if I was giving that much to the government.

 

[GtPrOjEcTX]

Originally posted by: jumpr

Originally posted by: Vic
Yep. My home phone bill last month was more than 40% taxes.

Are you serious? Where do you live, England?! Honestly, I'd cry if I was giving that much to the government.

His profile says Portland, Oregon. but wtf? is that a typo? but I was asking about cell phone charges, not home phone tax charges.

 

[Drakkon]

they shouldn't be charging you 911 fees...i mean every cellphone is able to dial 911 no matter what (wether on service or not) right? It sure does look like you getting screwed to some effect though....

 

[GtPrOjEcTX]

Originally posted by: jumpr
I would recommend calling your State AG or FTC office - they'll be able to explain it to you, or maybe even investigate Sprint PCS. One thing that I know is true is that you won't get a straight answer from Sprint.

That's definately true...When I tried calling them asking about it they said basically "Its taxes, we don't get it, the government does, and neither us or you can do anything about it."

 

Originally posted by: Drakkon
they shouldn't be charging you 911 fees...i mean every cellphone is able to dial 911 no matter what (wether on service or not) right? It sure does look like you getting screwed to some effect though....

Nope...wrong. That's one fee that I always get charged for on my bills. The whole REASON you can call 911, even from a deactivated phone, is b/c of that surcharge.

 

[GtPrOjEcTX]

Originally posted by: Drakkon
they shouldn't be charging you 911 fees...i mean every cellphone is able to dial 911 no matter what (wether on service or not) right? It sure does look like you getting screwed to some effect though....

I've been getting the 911 fee ever since I called 911 to report an accident on the highway. Doesn't seem fair.

 

[GtPrOjEcTX]

Originally posted by: jumpr

Originally posted by: Drakkon
they shouldn't be charging you 911 fees...i mean every cellphone is able to dial 911 no matter what (wether on service or not) right? It sure does look like you getting screwed to some effect though....

Nope...wrong. That's one fee that I always get charged for on my bills. The whole REASON you can call 911, even from a deactivated phone, is b/c of that surcharge.

so a deactivated phone where no one is paying a monthly fee can call 911 and not get charged a surcharge eh? and the rest of us with plans get the brunt. sounds like a democrat's idea.

 

[Vic]

Originally posted by: GtPrOjEcTX

Originally posted by: jumpr

Originally posted by: Vic
Yep. My home phone bill last month was more than 40% taxes.

Are you serious? Where do you live, England?! Honestly, I'd cry if I was giving that much to the government.

His profile says Portland, Oregon. but wtf? is that a typo? but I was asking about cell phone charges, not home phone tax charges.

Nope, that's where I live. It's just for the basic service, not counting long distance (we use Costco for LD and it shows up on a separate bill), but yeah... it was like $25 bucks and we added it up and more than $10 of that was taxes.

My cell phone bill is not that bad though. The bill is usually about $42 per mo. on a $39 per mo. plan, so only ~$3 bucks (or 7%) for taxes (although, after 8 years I've conned Verizon into giving me near unlimited minutes for that $39/mo. )

 

[GtPrOjEcTX]

Originally posted by: Vic
My cell phone bill is not that bad though. The bill is usually about $42 per mo. on a $39 per mo. plan, so only ~$3 bucks (or 7%) for taxes (although, after 8 years I've conned Verizon into giving me near unlimited minutes for that $39/mo. )

That's what I thought. I'm getting about 28% charge for taxes, etc.

 

[Thegonagle]

Originally posted by: GtPrOjEcTX
Federal Wireless Number Pooling and Portability 1.10

That one is not a tax. It is not required to be charged.

Sprint and a few others just add it on, but what they really should be doing is calling the $40 plan the $41.10 plan.

The others are various sales taxes and federal taxes that the governments regulate. They help generate revenue, like any other sales tax, and keep the 911 systems running, etc.

 

[GtPrOjEcTX]

Originally posted by: Thegonagle

Originally posted by: GtPrOjEcTX
Federal Wireless Number Pooling and Portability 1.10

That one is not a tax. It is not required to be charged.

Sprint and a few others just add it on, but what they really should be doing is calling the $40 plan the $41.10 plan.

The others are various sales taxes and federal taxes that the governments regulate. They help generate revenue, like any other sales tax, and keep the 911 systems running, etc.

so what is it for?

 

[MrBond]

Originally posted by: GtPrOjEcTX


so what is it for?

It sounds like a fee to cover their costs because they're going to have to start letting you keep your number if you go to a different carrier.

It seems kind of weird there's a Universal Service Fee on a cellular account, doesn't that money go to pay for phone service for people who can't afford it? I'm sorry, but if you make so little money you need your cellular service to be government subsidized, you need to not have a cell phone.

 

[NutBucket]

Supposedly if you bitch and moan enough about the number portablility charge, $1.10, a well trained CSR will remove it from your account. As was stated, its to pay for the capital costs of implementation. Seems to me if you charge people to allow them to take their number to another carrier they will! Anyway, Verizon is simply absorbing this cost unto themselves. I read somewhere that the cost per customer should only be about $0.30 so ionno.

Anyway, the E911 fee is a bit different. All new phones sold now have built in GPS so that they can quickly find their position. The main reason for this is E911 so that the proper authorities can actually find you when you call 911 from your phone. This system is costing a lot to implement and I think the fee is federally mandated.

 

[dullard]

That sounds just about right. I pay $8 in taxes and other similar fees on a $30 cell phone bill.

 

[pyonir]

there are only two certainties in life....