California Business Minute™

Hi, I am Tim Johnson and welcome to the California Business Minute.

The number of U.S. cell phone subscribers has grown significantly in recent
years, from 55 million in 1997 to 292 million in 2010. That period has also
seen a fall in landline telephones (now at 50 million), and 2007 marked the
first year that Americans spent more on cell phones than on landlines. This
trend toward cell phones has not gone unnoticed by state and local governments,
which have targeted wireless services for higher taxes.

According to a recent report by the Tax Foundation, the average U.S. wireless
consumer pays taxes and fees of 16.26 percent, of which state-local charges
average 11.21 percent, according to the report that identifies and calculates
wireless taxes and fees. Twenty-three states have average state-local wireless
taxes and fees in excess of 10 percent, and taking into account the infamous
federal telephone excise tax (dating to the Spanish-American War and partly
repealed in 2006), some cell phone subscribers pay more than 20 percent in taxes.

TOP TEN HIGHEST TAX RATES FOR CELL PHONE USERS
1. Nebraska  23.69%
2. Washington  23.00%
3. New York  22.83%
4. Florida   21.62%
5. Illinois  20.00%
6. Rhode Island  19.67%
7. Missouri  19.28%
8. Pennsylvania  19.13%
9. Kansas   18.39%
10. Texas   17.48%

California is ranked 19th out of the 50 states with a rate of $15.72, below the
national average Oregon has the lowest tax rate with a rate of $6.86.

I am Tim Johnson and this has been the California Business Minute.