On the recordMay 23, 2000
the Federal Government is notorious for being cumbersome and slow to change. When it comes to making improvements in our 17,000-page Tax Code, this is particularly true. So it is no great surprise that there is a 102-year-old temporary tax law on the books which became obsolete less than a year after it became law. That is right, the Spanish-American War tax, which charges Americans a 3-percent excise tax on their phone line usage, was passed by Congress in 1898 to pay for the Spanish-American War. Well, the war is over, folks, but the tax is still with us. It is hurting 94 percent of Americans who use phone lines either for personal or business use. Why has it not changed? It has not changed because of the insatiable appetite of Government for every single tax dollar it can get its hands on. This is wrong. Congress needs to disconnect the American people from the outdated Spanish-American War tax.
Source
govinfo.gov
