# Federal Phone taxes **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [September 15, 2000, 10:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/federal-phone-taxes/33291 "2000-09-15T10:40:36Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 3\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![sailor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a587f6/32.png) [@sailor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sailor)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2000, 10:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/federal-phone-taxes/33291/1 "2000-09-15T10:40:36Z")
I just got my phone bill: Verizon monthly service $12.94 6 different tax items total $6.95 bill total: $19.89 Is this insane or what? Taxes add up to 54% of the base amount. What’s the limit? WTF are they doing with the money? This reminds me that the Government of DC spends something like 70% of my property taxes just on paying interest on the debt they have accumulated. This is just outrageous. Can someone explain it to me? How can anyone believe this is not insane? ---
**Author:** ![UncleBeer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/977dab/32.png) [@UncleBeer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UncleBeer)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2000, 11:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/federal-phone-taxes/33291/2 "2000-09-15T11:10:49Z")
I dunno how your tax load breaks down, but part of the federal tax on it was initially instituted as a “temporary luxury tax” to finance the Spanish-American war, which was fought way back in 1898. I believe it has been fooled with a few times and is currently levied as 3% tax on all telecommunications services. ---
**Author:** ![Shadowfox](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c89c15/32.png) [@Shadowfox](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shadowfox)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2000, 12:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/federal-phone-taxes/33291/3 "2000-09-15T12:32:07Z")
The master himself has covered this before, but he really doesn’t answer the question in great detail. [http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a1\_335a.html](http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a1_335a.html)