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Have you looked at your utility bills lately? Really looked? Not at just the total amount, but more closely -- at all the charges that are included? Chances are you have not focused on the myriad of taxes your phone and utility services collect from you. If you have, you probably thought there really is not much, if anything, you could do about it.

In an October 2005 editorial, the Las Vegas Review-Journal noted, "The federal government first taxed phone service in the 1890s and has been taxing American phone bills in one way or another since the early 1930s."

Federal Excise Tax - It started with the Federal excise tax, now 3%, which currently brings over $5 billion a year into the Federal treasury. Originally imposed in 1898 to pay for the Spanish-American War, it has been abolished and reinstated numerous times, and consumers are still saddled with it over 100 years later, long after it has fulfilled its purpose.

Other Telephone Taxes - Having discovered a good place to hide taxes from the public, Congress, along with the multitude of state, county and city jurisdictions, just can't seem to resist the temptation to make the phone companies their tax collector of record for a wide variety of purposes. For example, most states impose additional taxes on phone bills, with California's Public Utilities Commission currently adding 3.9% to the ratepayers' burden.

In a Wall Street Journal article, New Taxes, Fees Hit Phone Bills (September 18, 2002), Yochi J. Dreazen reported, "...city, state and local governments have imposed a jumble of taxes, fees and surcharges on telephone bills -- and increased existing charges in a quest for greater revenues. Federal regulators have let long-distance carriers add virtually any charges they want to a customer's bill. Customers are baffled by their wireless and long-distance phone bills and are beginning to complain, authorities report."

Following is a partial list of various taxes, categories of taxes or so-called "fees" that are currently "hidden" in our phone bills:

>Telephone Relay Charge and Relay Surcharge

>911 Service Fee, State 911 Surcharge, Emergency 911 Surcharge

>State Maintenance Fee, Municipal Tax or Surcharge, Interstate Tax Surcharge, Statutory Gross Receipts Tax, State Tax/Surcharge, Utility Users Tax/Surcharge

>Universal Fund Surcharge, Federal Universal Fund, USF Line Charge

>End User Access Fee

>Number Portability Fee, NP Surcharge

>PICC charge, Carrier Access Recovery Charge

>Data Service Recovery Charge

Internet Access Tax - There is also a relatively new tax known as the E-Rate program, which was added to phone bills about 10 years ago, for the purpose of subsidizing Internet access to schools and libraries. This levy, usually disguised as a "universal service" charge, has been raising about $2.5 billion a year. The Las Vegas Review-Journal noted in an October 2005 editorial that a congressional oversight subcommittee concluded that the program ". . . is extremely vulnerable to waste, fraud and abuse, is poorly managed by the FCC, and completely lacks tangible measures of either effectiveness of impact."

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