atcomsystems.ca/forum Forums Wiring - Telecom Carriers - Trunks & Services Telecom Service & Providers Taxing VOIP type services

I started to add this to the Phone bill auditing of large bills post, and decided hijacking was not nice.

Are the states going to start taxing before the feds? Since there seems to be "No controlling legal authority', as Mr Gore put it, I'm surprised that 1 or more state hasn't tried to levy taxes on the part that occurs "within their borders". John C.

I think the states have tried and failed for the same reason they can't tax interstate sales for sales tax. About the only way (as far as what I know and understand) is through a federal entity like the FTC or FCC. It's evidently too complicated to proove origination and termination due to the nature of VoIP and how it travels from destination to destination on the internet. It's unenforceable basically because of the lack of a consistent data path on the internet.

Can you imagine the CDR records that would be generated if you had to maintain an active trace-route for every call you made? And then figuring out what physical location each hop is in, and then figuring out which state's you owe different taxes to. Plus it still has to do all the basic LD billing that is already going on.

I have heard that they are about to reach an agreement on interstate sales tax and will begin adding sales tax to all internet sales. I don't think taxing VoIP is going to be as easiy to come up with a solution to but it can be done. I think it would be easy enough to tax the subscriber according to the number of calls and the bandwidth used if nothing else.

-Hal

I'm sure there are ways to do it at the state level, but the federal way is probably the only "easy" way. It's probably the best way to keep it fair and uniform too.

Just imagine a VoIP call being as difficult to bill as figuring out if your low-voltage license is adequate in some out of town work. Now imagine the amount of abuse that could be placed on it if they start letting cities, municipalities, and other smaller local entities tax it.

Now imagine the amount of abuse that could be placed on it if they start letting cities, municipalities, and other smaller local entities tax it.

Well, that's the problem with purchases on the internet and sales tax. Actually most states have a uniform sales tax rate, only a few like NY allow municipalities to add their own. So the proposal is to eliminate that.

-Hal

Gee, Kumba! " I'm sure there are ways to do it at the state level, but the federal way is probably the only "easy" way. It's probably the best way to keep it fair and uniform too" You HAD to put that in print! Some fed looking for a new revenue stream will spot that, and "awaaay we go" (With appropriate thanks to the 'Great One', Jackie Gleason). Especially since now the T & S crowd has complete and total control! (T & S = Tax & Spend) Hind sight being what it is, I Shoulda' Kept My Big Mouth SHUT! John C.

VoIP deserves to be taxed the same as copper so let the T&S boys at 'em!

-Hal

They've been trying to tax it for years. They are also trying to figure out ways to tax and/or charge you fee's for your internet usage once you are on it (not counting the connection from your ISP). It's called Net Neutrality.

They will figure out a way to mess it up i'm sure

once they work out how to tax Voip Trunks, will the customer be able to get a tax rebate every time they have a dropped call?