[opendtv] NCTA Outlines Potential Title II Tax Hikes | Multichannel
- From: Craig Birkmaier <craig@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: OpenDTV Mail List <opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Thu, 4 Dec 2014 10:13:02 -0500
http://www.multichannel.com/news/cable-operators/ncta-outlines-potential-title-ii-tax-hikes/386010
NCTA Outlines Potential Title II Tax Hikes
The National Cable & Telecommunications Association wants the FCC to know just
how much of a state and local tax hit Title II reclassification could mean to
cable operators and their customers.
That is in addition to additional Universal Service Fund fees and FCC
regulatory fees, which also wind up on cable bills.
In a follow-up to a meeting between NCTA EVP James Assey and FCC General
Counsel Jonathan Sallet, Assey drilled down on the issue to three key types of
tax: property taxes, transaction-based taxes, and income, franchise and gross
receipts taxes.
Historically, many state and local governments imposed higher taxes on telecom
companies as regulated monopolies, and that remains the same even as telecoms
now compete broadly. By contrast, he says, broadband access providers are
generally taxed in the same was as other general businesses.
"Reclassifying broadband service as a regulated telecommunications service may
subject cable operators that provide broadband and their customers to
materially higher taxes and fees, either because a statute specifically
references the federal definitions or because a state tax authority interprets
state law in a manner that follows the federal definitions," he told Sallet,
according to an ex parte letter Dec. 2.
Tax increases could translate to higher costs for building out broadband and
higher prices to consumers, he said, both of which work against the universal
access mandate in statute.
NCTA is pushing back hard on efforts, including by President Barack Obama, to
get the FCC to reclassify Internet access under Title II.
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