A NATIONAL CAMPAIGN OF ANTI-WAR PHONE TAX RESISTANCE
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Stories from Telephone Tax Resisters Resisting the federal tax on telephone service can be a very simple process, as described on other pages. Below you will find some stories of long-time phone tax resisters. Some have had relatively easy experiences, and some have had more complicated experiences with phone companies, but continue to resist nonetheless. We are presenting these stories to help you along the way — if it turns out you need help. Remember, the main thing to watch for is that the phone company does credit the tax, rather than build up a “past due” on your bill.
(Sept. 2005) AT&T has a form for people who refuse to pay the phone tax. Ask the AT&T legal office for the form authorizing the withholding of billing for the Federal Excise Tax or download a PDF facsimile of the AT&T form here. Download another PDF of a sample letter that AT&T sent a telephone war tax resister in 2002. (Summer 2005) The text of an interesting document sent to NWTRCC by someone who worked for Cingular and wrote, “This is the official policy given to customer service representatives from Cingular’s upper management.” To see a copy of this document, click on Cingular policy document on telephone tax resisters. (Dec. 2005) I had been working with a very
nice woman in the Ocean Springs office who was removing the federal excise tax
faithfully every month, this changed after Hurricane Katrina. The handling of
my resistance was moved to the Tulsa Center (addresses at link above) because,
I was told, I was the only person in the entire Gulf States-Southeast-Indiana
region who was doing wtr! Well, I hope that isn't the case, but, in any case,
if you are a Cingular customer in those states, I recommend contacting Tulsa instead
of Ocean Springs to have your resistance properly handled. --R.R., Georgia § (August 2005) From a T-Mobile customer: Instead of sending a slip along
with the bill, a separate letter with the usual details (reason for refusing,
date of invoice, amount refused, signature of refuser) should be sent each month
to: In response to the information below, T-Mobile emailed us to say: “We want to make sure that your users' complaints and concerns are directed to the proper T-Mobile customer service representatives so that they can be remedied where possible. Such concerns can be directed to 800-937-8997 or via e-mail at www.t-mobile.com/contact. Additionally, legal complaints can also be directed to T-Mobile's registered agents. They exist in every U.S. state and are registered with each state's Secretary of State.” (March '05) T-Mobile had threatened (and started - see first report below) to cut off my phone service for refusal to pay the tax. When I called and they took my complaint to the Tax Support Team, the TST came back saying it was a part of my bill and the charge stood in place. I then wrote a letter to the Legal Department, pointing out two things. First is item 6 in the T-Mobile Consumer Code, which distinguishes carrier charges from taxes and other fees. The second was the IRS Fed. Regulations Code included in the NWTRCC website. I asked for my account to be credited for the excise taxes I had paid since the inception of my contract with them. I received a letter today from the Legal Dept., stating that my account has been credited and the amount as been reported to the IRS. One small victory! I have since switched to Working Assets, but for anyone attempting this with T-Mobile in the future, I'd suggest writing the letter and not playing the runaround game with the Customer Service rep's on the phone. Here's the address to their Legal Department: Legal Department T-Mobile USA, Inc., P.O. Box 37380, Albuquerque, NM 87176. (Feb. 2005) I have T-Mobile and they
have been totally sending me through the ringer. The issue is still not resolved
but is taking so long that they are cancelling my service for non-payment (I received
the notice today). I am switching phone companies but still have to deal with
the situation. I am sending a letter to their legal department, noting their consumer
code, which differentiates between carrier and tax charges, and the notation on
your website from the IRS Code of Federal Regulations. They said they've never
heard of this before. --S.H. § (from 2004) Some resisters have had success
when writing to the address below and asking that their account be credited for
the federal excise tax. In your letter include this information: Name, Name on
Bill, Address, Telephone Account Number, Reasons for Refusal, Signature of person
on bill. Give the billing dates with the amount refused on each if you are asking
for credits from multiple bills. Ask them to tell you what process to follow to
get the tax credited on a regular basis. § (Dec.
2005) — J.M., California (Fall
2005) — J.S., California I resist with Verizon with much success. One time an operator told me I had to call the FCC and steadfastly refused to help me despite my refusal history. I said OK, hung up, called Verizon again, got a different operator and was taken care of. This may not be the most easy thing to do when writing, but it worked over the phone. — M.C. § Re: my experiences with Verizon since September 2001: My 9/11 agreement with Verizon and the Virginia State Corporation Commission was that Verizon would credit my account for improperly charged late payments and unpaid federal taxes to date and that I would pay the balance due minus federal taxes and late charges. I also agreed to send my future Verizon payments minus federal tax to one address and a monthly tax notification card indicating how much federal tax I was redirecting to another addresses supplied by Verizon. Verizon credited my account. I paid the balance and I began sending my payments minus the federal tax as agreed. This agreement worked for one month. After that, Verizon began to mess up again. Verizon then asked me to send my tax notification card to another address. I did. The billing was still inaccurate. I was not always getting the federal tax credited to my bill in a timely way and late charges were being added. I wasn't able to solve the problem with any of the many Verizon operators, supervisors, and middle management personnel I was able to contact. I kept notes and records of all my conversations with Verizon representatives and I made audio tape recordings as a memory aid for my own use. In September 2002, I began sending my payments and federal tax notification information to Ivan Seidenberg, Verizon CEO, 1095 Avenue of Americas, 41st floor, New York, NY 10036. I also sent Mr. Seidenberg a letter of explanation with detailed documentation outlining the ongoing problem. I did not receive a response nor was my letter acknowledged. I also contacted my Virginia State Senator for assistance. He indicated to me that Verizon's requirement that I send my payment to one address and a tax notification to another didn't make sense to him. I agreed and told him that other telephone companies I was doing business with (Working Assets and AT&T) did not impose this requirement and that I had no problem with either company. He agreed to look into the matter with the Virginia State Corporation Commission. During this period, I received a series of threatening letters from Verizon telling me that if I did not pay my bill, my telephone service would be curtailed. I responded to each of these threats with phone calls to Verizon. This process was very difficult because each time I would be shunted to a different Verizon representative. Notes attached to my account by the various Verizon representatives did not always match what I was told. I know this because I kept my own notes and an audio voice recording of each conversation. Despite promises by some Verizon representatives that my service would not be curtailed until this issue was resolved, my service was cut off. I had to do some difficult negotiating to get my service restored, but I was back in service within a few hours. I was able to do this without paying or promising to pay the federal tax, late charges, service restoral charge, and/or other improperly billed charges. I received a letter dated January 7, 2003 from a Verizon Customer Relations Representative in Virginia. This letter acknowledged receipt of the letter I sent to Mr. Seidenberg on December 19, 2002. The PR person apologized for "the inconvenience this situation has caused" me. It also stated that, "the Virginia State Corporation Commission will address your concerns." My concerns have not been addressed by the Virginia State Corporation Commission to date. My ongoing adventure with Verizon is part of acting out my awareness. As a pacifist, I believe that peace is patriotic. I feel that it as my duty as a responsible citizen is to be aware and to pay my taxes for peace. I also believe that it is the duty of a responsible government to provide me, and like-minded others, with a choice to be a war taxpayer or a peace taxpayer. I am determined to work very hard to help gain this choice for all of us. — E.P., Virginia § Each time I read of . . . misadventures with Verizon I wonder how I've (finally) been luckier. For about five or so years I've been sending monthly notices to an address in Florida. Here it is: Verizon SRC Tax Dept. -- MC: FLSP2194, Post Office Box 11328, St. Petersburg, FL 33733. Yes, this does involve my sending them a letter in addition to sending my payment someplace else. The Florida people sometimes get behind a month, rarely more, and my letter includes a description of what has been left on my account from previous months (if something has been left on). — J.M., California § (Dec. 2005) — C.B., North Carolina This correspondence after many phone calls and sending Bell South the IRS regulations: From: consumer.customer.service Dear Mr. F., Thank you for contacting BellSouth regarding the Federal taxes on your phone bill. I am glad to assist you with this matter. I will be able to adjust the Federal taxes on your April 5, 2003 bill. I will make a note and we will contact the IRS. You will need to contact BellSouth each month to have this done. At the time, we are having system problems, but I will follow up to ensure the adjustment is made. For now, please deduct the amount of Federal taxes from your bill. Should you need further assistance or have other questions, please reply back to this e-mail and the BellSouth Online Customer Care team will be happy to help you. Sincerely, BellSouth Online Customer Care § On Wed, 23 Jul 2003, Qwest Residential Services wrote: Dear Y. (in Oregon), Thank you for your recent e-mail inquiry to Qwest regarding the $.72 charge on your bill and your request to be an authorized party on the account. Below you will find an excerpt from your May bill telling you what the charges are for: The following charges are billed at the request of local, state and federal government and/or to support government programs. for additional information visit our website at www.qwest.com FEDERAL EXCISE AT 3% $0.72 You are responsible for paying that amount, and if it goes unpaid, it will continue to be forwarded as a balance on your account. Sincerely, Qwest Customer Care, Consumer Markets § October 17, 2003 From Qwest Consumer Sales Support Organization to Customer in Minnesota: Thank you for writing to us. We have adjusted the Federal Excise Tax on your requested bill. You have the right to refuse to pay the Federal Excise Tax, but Qwest is obligated to bill the tax. Please remember that you must submit a statement of refusal to pay in writing each month the tax is billed and not paid. Please remember to provide the following information to have the tax adjusted: the billing name on the account, the telephone number, the date of the bill on which the tax is refused, the type of tax refused, the amount of the tax refused, the reason for refusal, and the carrier identification of any taxes refused. Thank you for choosing Qwest § (Fall 2005) I sent a letter to the President of Verizon, Ivan Seidenberg, about a 2 months ago. At the same time, I was able to hook up with D.W. of the Executive Relations Office of the President for the Midwest Region (based in Elgin, Illinois). She received my letter and we chatted about the need for Verizon to implement a system for conscientious objectors to be able to withhold the federal excise tax on their wireless accounts (as you may recall, my cell service was disconnected for $ 33.86 in unpaid federal tax dollars). She recognizes that Verizon is behind the times here, especially given the climate of potential imminent war with Iraq. She stated that they are seeing more and more CO's regarding this issue. Anyway, she is one of several people who have been asked to develop a system for folks like us. I have to admit she was very friendly, understanding, and is doing a pretty good job at enlightening her fellow co-workers on the issue. In all, I had spoken to four of her colleagues about this and all were very cordial and understanding . . . . She called me one evening and asked me "what do you want from Verizon?" We came to an agreement that I would pay the remainder of my contract for the remaining 3 months ($59.85). Verizon in turn waived the $200.00 cancellation fee, late fees, federal taxes, and got the creditors to stop calling me . . . . [to fellow phone tax resisters] I appreciate so much the emails, your inspiration, written correspondences, copies of legal documents to support my case, etc. If it weren't for your strong belief, faith, and dedication to what you do best, I would have paid the bill (in full) a long time ago. I know there are many more people in this world who feel like we do. —J.L., Missouri § 38 YEARS OF PHONE TAX RESISTANCE Southwestern Bell (1970-73), New York Telephone-NYNEX-Bell Atlantic-Verizon (1973-2002), AT&T (2003 to present) In 1970 I began refusing to pay the federal excise tax on telephone service and have used several different carriers since then. In the early 1970s when I lived in Austin, TX, Southwestern Bell was the easiest phone company to use. All they required was one letter from me and after that they automatically removed the tax from every bill. When I moved to New York City in 1973, the various incarnations of the local carrier (Verizon, formerly Bell Atlantic, formerly NYNEX, formerly New York Telephone) had me jump through a variety of hoops over the years. At one point I needed to enclose a letter with every bill payment, then one letter to the business office was sufficient for them to automatically remove the tax from every subsequent bill, then I needed to call them every month, then a letter needed to be sent to the business office every month. In the end (through 2002), Verizon became the most difficult company. Despite all my letters and periodic telephone calls, they would accumulate (over a period of a year or more) a large balance on my bill that I would eventually succeed in getting removed. I found someone in their business office who I could call every few months, and she would have the tax removed. In no case was I ever forced to pay the tax or was my phone service ever discontinued. Throughout all these years, AT&T has usually been my long distance carrier. At times they required a monthly letter but would never accumulate the tax or threaten to cut off service. When I switched my local service to AT&T as well (in late 2002), they provided me with a form to fill out that included “war tax” as one of the options to check off as to why I wasn’t paying. After that, the federal excise tax was automatically taken off the bill. Over the years I learned that when the initial customer service person balked or didn’t understand (“You have to provide a form proving you’re tax exempt”), asking for a supervisor, contacting the business office directly, and most of all persistence eventually paid off. The phone companies always say they will report my nonpayment to the IRS on a quarterly basis. However, I have not been directly contacted by the IRS about my nonpayment of the federal excise tax since the early 1980s. And in only one (or was it two?) instance did the IRS ever pursue me over the telephone tax. That was in the early 1970s in Austin when they went to the university where I worked as a teacher and had my whole salary (about $250) seized for about $5 in the tax. Several months later the IRS refunded the balance of what they seized minus the tax but PLUS the interest accumulated on that balance over-seized, which almost wiped out the tax they took! — E.H., New York |