Excise Tax

The latest buzz (that interests me) is about the "excise tax" that you pay on your cell phone bill, or more specifically, a call to repeal it. As reported by an Ohio TV station, it seems that the tax in question was actually instituted 107 years ago (long before cell phones) in order to fund the Spanish American War.

There's more information on the Federal Excise Tax, or FET, at MyWireless.org, and apparently, you can request a refund of everything you've paid in FET for the past 107 years by filling out a form from the IRS. A word of warning, however: you have to itemize on a quarter-by-quarter basis. Frankly, I think the burden of a refund should be on the IRS and the carriers.

Every year at tax time I say the same thing: I want some accountability! I would like to see how my tax money is being spent. Oh, I don't expect them to account for every dollar individually, but I would like to see a summary. For example, where is the majority of the tax revenue spent? National defense? If so, what percentage of my taxes are going towards that? What percentage of my taxes go towards education? What about welfare? Healthcare? Law Enforcement? Congressional Salaries? Anything over 1% should be accounted for.

Unfortunately, I really don't think the IRS will ever provide statistics on where the money goes. Like me, they realize that if people knew where the money was going, they would be outraged. Most people, though, are too stupid to question anything, so we'll continue to be milked for things like the Spanish American War in the years to come.