OCR Text |
Show Telephone Co. to cut 1976 Excise Tax Unlike all those Christmas bills, your telephone bill will contain a bit of good news when it comes this month according to Kenneth O. Hill, Utah Public Relations Manager for Mountain Bell. Starting January 1, 1970, the Federal Excise Tax on telephone bills will drop one-percent -- from seven to six percent. Customers of Mountain Bell in Utah will pay $1,090,000 less in excise taxes in the Bicentennial year. In 1971, Congress acted to eliminate the tax by dropping it one percent a year until January 1, 19!!2. The tax had stood at 10 percent for almost 20 years prior to the congressional action. The original Federal Excise Tax on telephone service was adopted as a "temporary" measure during World War I. The cut to six percent will save the nation's phone company customers about $250 million. But Uncle Sam will still collect $1.75 billion from the levy in 1976. |