“Americans spend more on phone service on Mother’s Day than any other day of the year,” said Portman.  “But, when the phone bill comes, that mysterious federal excise tax will appear at the bottom.  This year, grateful sons, daughters and grandchildren will spend $15 million in federal excise taxes on Mother’s Day alone.”

Portman noted that the money spent on the federal “tax on talking” could be put to much better use on Mother’s Day.  “Fifteen million dollars may not be much by Washington standards, but it would mean that Americans would have 300 million more minutes to call mom,” said Portman.  “They could buy mom more than seven million more Mother’s Day cards, more than 500,000 gardenia plants or over 1.3 million boxes of Godiva chocolates.”

Portman and Congressman Robert Matsui (D-California) have introduced H.R. 3916, legislation to permanently repeal the federal excise tax on telecommunications services.

Congress first enacted a telephone excise tax in order to help pay for the Spanish-American War in 1898.  At the time, this “temporary” tax amounted to a penny on long-distance phone calls costing more than 15 cents. Over the years, the federal phone tax has survived efforts to phase it out and scale it back, and Congress made it a permanent 3% tax on telecommunications services in 1990.

Of the 105.4 million households in America, 99.1 million (94%) have telephone service.  The Portman-Matsui telephone tax repeal would provide tax relief to every one of those households.  Additionally, because of the rapid pace of technological change, the difference between traditional telecommunications, the Internet and other technologies is increasingly unclear.  If the federal phone tax remains on the books, it would jeopardize recent efforts to keep the Internet free from taxation.

“By repealing this unnecessary tax, Congress could give a special Mother’s Day gift to the American people – a $15 million calling card,” said Portman.  “We should do it this year.  If we can’t repeal this 102 year-old ‘temporary’ tax in a time of government surpluses, we’re all going to have to ask a serious question:  Is there any tax that can be repealed?”