[mjdollard]

A request: Look at your cell phone and cable bills and see what taxes you are paying. If you get the bills via email you may not read them very closely, I didn't.

Recently I had my quarterly chat with Century Link about why my bill had jumped for no particular reason. They hacked off about $50, but like time their discounts will be fleeting. During the lengthy phone call I had time to ask questions about each line item. One was why I pay Lake County sales tax as I live in Sumter, south of 466A, near Bonifay. I also pay City of Lady Lake Communication Services Tax. They told me that it is because I live in Lady Lake, at least their records say I do and the service person was in Tennessee so......

This is what I learned - the Communications Services tax in Lady Lake is 5.82% of the bill. In the unincorporated area of Sumter County (most of TV) it is 2.72%. Sales tax is 7%

To shorten this up as much as possible - I am paying Lake County taxes at the rate of about $10 a month. Since I have to pay no matter what I at least want my county (Sumter) to get the benefit and keep Sumter property tax down. I wrote to the Florida Dept of Revenue, but no answer. I wrote to Sumter County and they are looking into it. Its been a few weeks but I am retired so it can become a hobby.

Some fun with numbers - Sumter has most of the villages homes, if Century Link screwed up 5,000 customers (about 40,000 home, one third using Century Link and a 40% error rate) at $100 a year that is $500,000 in lost revenue to Sumter that we make up in property tax. Please do not send me messages about the above math - it could be more, it could be less, it could be every service provider. But these service providers are making mistakes.

I have a neighbor that also uses Century Link and they pay Sumter taxes, as they should but they also pay telephone excise taxes and 911 fees. Is this odd - yes it is because they don't have a phone with CL.

Lastly, I went and checked my Verizon cell phone bill and noticed one line is paying Florida taxes and the other is paying NY taxes. The billing address change was on the number that pays Fl taxes, the address for the other line had to be changed separately. Understand that both lines are on one bill, each has its own address.

[ColdNoMore]

Wow, something is really wrong there.

I have Verizon, with a small 1GB plan that I never come close to using up (average .30GB) because it is set to hook up to my internet when home.

I pay a total of $68.80 a month (1 phone), of which $5.04 is service/taxes;

$0.70 - Fed Universal Service Charge
$0.21 - Regulatory Charge
$1.23 - Admin Charge

$0.40 - FL State 911 Fee
$1.89 - FL Communications Service Tax
$0.61 - Sumter County Comm Srvc Tax

My billing address is 'The Villages,' but I can't imagine your county tax is $10 even if it says 'Lady Lake' and 'Lake County.'

Good luck in figuring out how and why you're getting shafted.

[mjdollard]

That was $10 on the cable/tv/internet bill, not the cell phone

[ColdNoMore]

Oh, OK.

Here's off of my Comcast bill which averages +-$160.00 a month (TV, Internet, land line).


PPV/VOD State- $0.90

PPV/VOD Local- $0.28

State- $4.14

Local- $1.31

Sales Tax- $0.56

FCC Regulatory Fee- $0.08


Voice

Sales Tax- $0.70

State- $0.51

Local- $0.50

911 Fees- $0.40


Total Taxes Surcharges and Fees $9.38


In other words, they ALL add up to less than $10 not just the 'county tax.'

My original point stands, good luck in finding out why and how you're getting shafted.