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Politech is the oldest Internet resource devoted to politics and technology. Launched in 1994 by Declan McCullagh, the mailing list has chronicled the growing intersection of culture, technology, politics, and law. Since 2000, so has the Politech web site.
Previous Politech message: http://www.politechbot.com/p-04805.html --- Date: Wed, 4 Jun 2003 08:00:28 -0400 (EDT) From: Scott Bradner <sob@harvard.edu> To: declan@well.com Subject: Re: FC: Query from reporter about Earthlink levying additional fees Cc: JJCook@tribune.com In-Reply-To: <5.2.1.1.0.20030603230830.0413fe98@mail.well.com> > I was hoping you or one of > your readers might be able to explain this e-mail I got from Earthlink, my see http://famulus.msnbc.com/famulusgen/cnet06-03-163501a.asp?t=CNTEK Scott --- From: "D McOwen" <dmcowen@bellsouth.net> To: <declan@well.com>, <politech@politechbot.com> Cc: <JJCook@tribune.com> Subject: RE: Query from reporter about Earthlink levying additional fees Date: Wed, 4 Jun 2003 23:12:04 -0400 Message-ID: <NCBBLLCKEFIGAFOKNBDLMELODKAA.dmcowen@bellsouth.net> http://www.businessweek.com/technology/cnet/stories/1012879.htm By Jim Hu, Staff Writer, CNET News.com Earthlink ADSL Tax Table http://support.earthlink.net/mu/1/psc/img/walkthroughs/other/taxbilling/8233.psc.html ADSL Tax Table Resolution ID: 8233 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---- Question What are the taxes and/or fees that will be applied to my EarthLink bill? Answer Below are the estimated total monthly taxes and/or fees that will be applied to your EarthLink bill. These amounts include the state and local taxes and/or fees as well as the recovery of Universal Service Fund fees, and are subject to change. Taxes and fees applied to your bill are calculated using the address we currently have on file for you. Amounts are based on a monthly charge of $49.95 for DSL service. State Minimum Maximum Alabama $2.58 $2.58 Alaska $0.66 $2.90 Arizona $2.46 $3.90 Arkansas $0.66 $0.66 California $0.66 $0.66 Colorado $0.66 $0.66 Connecticut $2.58 $2.58 District of Columbia $0.66 $0.66 Delaware $0.66 $0.66 Florida $1.42 $3.70 Georgia $0.66 $0.66 Hawaii $1.94 $1.94 Illinois $3.06 $5.30 Indiana $1.11 $1.11 Kansas $2.36 $3.32 Kentucky $0.66 $2.58 Louisiana $1.62 $1.62 Maine $0.66 $0.66 Maryland $0.66 $0.66 Massachusetts $0.66 $2.26 Michigan $0.66 $0.66 Minnesota $2.74 $2.74 Mississippi $2.90 $2.90 Missouri $2.18 $3.34 Nevada $0.66 $0.66 New Hampshire $2.90 $2.90 New Jersey $2.58 $2.58 New Mexico $2.79 $4.28 New York $1.46 $2.41 North Carolina $2.58 $2.58 Ohio $0.66 $0.66 Oklahoma $0.66 $0.66 Oregon $0.66 $0.66 Pennsylvania $0.66 $2.90 Rhode Island $4.50 $4.50 South Carolina $2.26 $2.90 Tennessee $4.41 $4.91 Texas $2.66 $3.30 Utah $0.66 $0.66 Vermont $0.66 $0.66 Virginia $0.66 $0.66 Washington $2.90 $3.51 West Virginia $0.66 $0.66 Wisconsin $3.16 $3.66 --- From: "Jim Harper" <jim.harper@policycounsel.com> To: <declan@well.com> Cc: <JJCook@tribune.com> Subject: RE: Query from reporter about Earthlink levying additional fees Date: Wed, 4 Jun 2003 09:33:55 -0400 Here's the deal on Earthlink passing through taxes: http://news.com.com/2100-1038_3-1012879.html I hope everyone knows that taxes are usually passed on to consumers, even if not explicitly. In relevant news, a U.S. House Judiciary Subcommittee approved H.R. 49, the "Internet Tax Nondiscrimination Act" on May 22. It would permanently extend the existing ban on multiple or discriminatory taxes. It would also terminate the grandfathering of access taxes that existed in 1998, which is what probably allows the taxes queried about by Mr. Cook. Jim Harper PolicyCounsel.Com --- Date: Wed, 04 Jun 2003 00:35:56 -0700 From: Graham Freeman <graham@jahiel.net> To: declan@well.com cc: JJCook@tribune.com Subject: Re: FC: Query from reporter about Earthlink levying additional fees The "taxes" bit is probably the Federal Universal Service Fee (FUSF), which is billed to ISPs by the ILECs (such as Verizon and SBC) and CLECs (such as Covad). Some ISPs are choosing to itemize these costs rather than include it in their advertised prices. You're probably seeing action now (rather than before) in part because the FCC recently issued a ruling which fixed the rate at a specific percentage (9.1%) as well as other things that I don't completely understand, but in any event motivated the LECs to change the way they recover these taxes, which in turn motivated various ISPs to change the way they bill. Contact an Internet Service Providers' association for info from their perspective, see <http://www.speakeasy.net/low/main.php?page=res_fusf> for a barebones explanation, or check the FCC web site for more hard-to-digest information than you can shake a stick at. There's a basic explanation of FUSF (at this URL: <http://www.fcc.gov/wcb/universal_service/welcome.html> Graham Freeman http://www.jahiel.net/projects/solarwap --- Date: Wed, 04 Jun 2003 05:15:34 -0600 To: declan@well.com, politech@politechbot.com From: Charles Oriez <coriez@oriez.org> Subject: Re: FC: Query from reporter about Earthlink levying additional fees Cc: "Cook, John J." <JJCook@tribune.com> It appears that some locales are deciding to go after taxes that didn't before. It could be a function of the struggling economy. http://coop.net/press_room/tax.php Coop.net is one of the major backbone providers in Colorado. The Peoples Republic of Boulder wants $170,644.35 in back taxes from them. Since coop provides connectivity to a significant percentage of the industry in Colorado, this could have a significant impact on all of us unless they win their appeal or choose to move their facility, and jobs, out of Boulder. Charles Oriez coriez@oriez.org 39 34' 34.4"N / 105 00' 06.3"W ** "Oh come now. At least pretend to be scared. The media spent millions trying to psyche you up for this" - User Friendly, 08/01/01 on the Code Red virus scare --- X-Sender: rgm-int@localhost X-Mailer: QUALCOMM Windows Eudora Version 5.1 Date: Wed, 04 Jun 2003 08:50:45 -0400 To: declan@well.com From: Robert Moskowitz <rgm-int@htt-consult.com> Subject: Re: FC: Query from reporter about Earthlink levying additional fees In-Reply-To: <5.2.1.1.0.20030603230830.0413fe98@mail.well.com> DSL.NET added taxes to my subscription long ago. The way I recall it, the RBOCs cried foul that they had to charge taxes, but the ILEC DSL providers did not. The RBOCs won and now I have to pay taxes.... --- Declan, I got the same notice from Earthlink so I went on a little google-hunt. I think that this might be the result of a project called the Streamlined Sales Tax Project. Here's their homepage: http://www.streamlinedsalestax.org/ It seems to be meeting with some success. Here's where you can track which states have adopted the legislation: http://www.ncsl.org/programs/press/2003/political01.htm I'm attaching the pdf of the language proposed by the SSTP project since it's only 290K. Hopefully Mr.Cook or yourself can take it from here. (Please suppress my email address...I actually remembered to put CONFIDENTIAL in the subject line! ;) ------------------------------------------------------------------------- POLITECH -- Declan McCullagh's politics and technology mailing list You may redistribute this message freely if you include this notice. ------------------------------------------------------------------------- To subscribe to Politech: http://www.politechbot.com/info/subscribe.html This message is archived at http://www.politechbot.com/ Declan McCullagh's photographs are at http://www.mccullagh.org/ Like Politech? 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