Back in 1898, Congress passed a levy of one cent per telephone call to help raise money to fund the Spanish-American War. The tax, while temporary, has been on-again, off-again throughout the years, and was reinstated in 1990. Now it is three percent (3%) of your overall telephone bill. And some people are refusing to pay it.

The Seattle Post-Intelligencer today reported on people who protest paying this federal tax because funding for the tax is applied to, among other things, the war on Iraq.

Telephone companies are required to attempt to collect the federal excise tax, but since they have no enforcement power, they cannot force you to pay it. So anyone who protests paying the federal tax to their phone company will receive a corresponding reduction on their telephone bill. But the law requires the companies to report such protesters to the Internal Revenue Service.

For Seattle peace activist Bert Sacks, the monthly act of resistance adds up to only 59 cents. Symbolically, however, refusing to pay the “war tax” on his Qwest phone bill represents a pocketbook protest against what he sees as misuse of U.S. military power.

“I object to the U.S. government policy of using famine and epidemic as tools against civilian populations. That’s wrong,” says the retired engineer, who has fought for a decade to get economic sanctions against Iraq lifted.

Sacks is one of thousands of Americans believed to be refusing to pay the federal taxes attached to their monthly phone bills — money that helps fund military operations overseas. . . .

“We oppose the policies of ‘pre-emptive war’ and an ‘endless’ war on terrorism, which led to the Iraq war, which violate human rights and international law, and which have cost us hundreds of billions of dollars while our states and cities face unprecedented deficits, and cutbacks of vital services and programs,” reads the statement on a Web site called hanguponwar.org.

Qwest Communications International Inc., which provides local phone service to most of the Seattle area, thinks the excise tax is “a silly tax that should go away,” company spokeswoman Shasha Richardson said. . . .

Cingular Wireless sends a letter to tax-resisting customers agreeing that the federal excise tax is “antiquated and discriminatory” and that it has “has far outlived its purpose.” — Seattle Post-Intelligencer

Concerned about the possibility of the IRS applying the excise tax to VoIP service, in April, Rep. Gary Miller (R-Calif.) introduced a bill in the House to repeal the federal excise tax on telephone service, and Sen. Rick Santorum (R-Pa.) introduced a similar bill in the Senate in June. But both bills are dead in committee.

This federal excise tax on telephone service is only one of many taxes and surcharges that appear on the average phone bill. All told, many consumers pay over 20% in taxes, government fees, and other surcharges imposed or regulated by federal and state governments. In a few pathological cases, that number can be as high as 50%.

It’s about time, too. There are so many taxes, fees and other surcharges on the average person’s phone bill that most people can’t even figure out what they are for, and when they look at the totals, they quickly realize that their telephone carries a very heavy tax burden. As most of these taxes don’t apply at all to VoIP, the lower costs of VoIP itself, combined with the tax breaks, make it a very compelling alternative to traditional telephone service and traditional telephone taxes. — Homeland Stupidity

To protest the federal excise tax and have it removed from your bill, contact your phone company and let them know you object to the federal excise tax and why. The company will normally send you a tax protester’s form. Just fill it out and send it back.