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Show World War II phone tax outlives nurpose for which it was set Way back in World War II, J telephone user became very Irful to Uncle Sam. The spe-1,1 spe-1,1 taxes he paid were deeded de-eded to limit telephone usage a period of wartime, to keep L lines clear for national de-,nse de-,nse use and also to help with Inns needed to pay for the r It was called, "A War-Emergency War-Emergency Tax," states a lephone official. It has been twenty years jice the "War Emergency" 'nded, but we continue to pay ;,e use restriction tax. In a, ;)64 independent public opinion tfvey, the excise tax on tele-'ione tele-'ione service was considered :,e most unreasonable. Following are reasons the lephone company believes it ould be discontinued: The tax is a direct levy on stomers the telephone i company just collects if the 10 per cent applies on both local lo-cal and long distance service It amounts to nearly four and one-half million dollars annually annual-ly m Utah; telephone service is not a luxury; it is the only household utility service that still carries an excise tax- repeal re-peal would help the lower income in-come groups since nearly everyone ev-eryone uses telephone service-the service-the tax was put on as a wartime war-time measure to limit telephone usage for wartime purposes The emergency is long past. Repeal could stimulate more telephone usage, and in turn more expansion of telephone buildings, lines and equipment. This means more jobs and more dollars in the local economy. econ-omy. Through our Pro-Utah organization, or-ganization, we are trying to stimulate industry in our state. Our major markets are hundreds hun-dreds of miles away which necessitates ne-cessitates long distance calling between the manufacturer and the consumer. People in Utah are paying a disproportionate burden through the application of a 10 percent excise tax on these long distance calls. In the next few weeks, Congress Con-gress will be considering the reduction of repeal of some excise ex-cise taxes. If you feel the wartime war-time tax on telephone service has been in effect long enough, an expression of your opinion to your congressional representatives repre-sentatives may be in order. |