by Anne Galloway May 2, 2013 vtdigger.org Satellite TV companies are launching a media campaign to block a Senate proposal to tax monthly satellite TV bills.
Direct TV and Dish will be purchasing air time on local TV and radio stations, and urging subscribers to put pressure on lawmakers to reject the new tax. H.528, the miscellaneous tax bill just passed by the Senate, will go to conference committee next week and the company hopes to scuttle the proposal.
The tax bill puts a 3 percent excise tax on monthly bills this year and exempts the first $30 for one year.
That tax, however, goes up to 4 percent the following year and drops the exemption. It automatically goes up to 5 percent in year three. The average bill is $85, according to Andrew Reinsdorf, a spokesman for Direct TV.
We think its an unfair tax, Reinsdorf said.
Senate Finance Committee members operated under the assumption that the tax about $1.3 million in year one would be absorbed by the companies.
Not so, according to Reinsdorf. We are going to apply the excise tax and it has to be paid by the customer, he said.
Satellite TV companies, like their counterparts in the cable world, are already assessed a 6 percent sales tax on programming. Cable companies, however, have to pay a 5 percent franchise fee as well. Until now, satellite companies have not had to pay additional assessments.
Direct TV and Dish Satellite have together about 100,000 subscribers, and the companies plan to use their bully pulpit to warn viewers about the tax.
It worked last time. The campaign generated about 1,500 emails that flooded the inboxes of the House Ways and Means Committee members. Soon after, lawmakers dropped the idea.
The excise tax, Reinsdorf says, will be applied directly to consumers bills.
Satellite TV companies crowdsource anti-tax campaign in Vermont
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