South Carolina General Assembly
116th Session, 2005-2006

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S. 551

STATUS INFORMATION

Concurrent Resolution
Sponsors: Senator Hawkins
Document Path: l:\council\bills\swb\6350sd05.doc

Introduced in the Senate on March 2, 2005
Currently residing in the Senate Committee on Finance

Summary: Federal excise tax on telecommunications

HISTORY OF LEGISLATIVE ACTIONS 

     Date      Body   Action Description with journal page number
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    3/2/2005  Senate  Introduced SJ-4
    3/2/2005  Senate  Referred to Committee on Finance SJ-4

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VERSIONS OF THIS BILL

3/2/2005

(Text matches printed bills. Document has been reformatted to meet World Wide Web specifications.)

A CONCURRENT RESOLUTION

TO REQUEST THE CONGRESS OF THE UNITED STATES TO SUPPORT A REPEAL OF THE FEDERAL EXCISE TAX ON TELECOMMUNICATIONS.

Whereas, the federal excise tax on communications was enacted in 1898 for the purpose of funding the Spanish-American War; and

Whereas, the tax was introduced as a "temporary" luxury tax; and

Whereas, telephone service is no longer a luxury but rather a necessity for consumers of all income levels; and

Whereas, the federal excise tax is regressive, as low-income Americans pay a higher percentage of their income for telephone services than high-income Americans; and

Whereas, telecommunications services are the infrastructure upon which new technologies, including the Internet depend, and therefore the telecommunications excise tax discourages expansion of both the telephone infrastructure and new technologies; and

Whereas, the federal excise tax on telecommunications flows into the general fund, rather than being earmarked for a specific purpose; and

Whereas, both Houses of Congress passed a repeal of the federal excise tax on telecommunications in 2000 which was vetoed by President Clinton. Now, therefore,

Be it resolved by the Senate, the House of Representatives concurring:

That the members of the South Carolina General Assembly, by this resolution, request the Congress of the United States to support a repeal of the federal excise tax on telecommunications.

Be it further resolved that a copy of this resolution be forwarded to the United States Senate, the United States House of Representatives, and to each member of the South Carolina Congressional Delegation.

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