I received a new study which shows that Montana has the 4th lowest average state-local cell phone tax & fee rate in the country at 6%! The way I figure it...when you factor in the 5.82% federal rate, Idaho residents pay an average of 11.83% of their wireless bill in taxes fees. On the other end of the spectrum, wireless subscribers out in Washington State pay an average of 18.6% in state & local taxes & fees, which gets bumped up to 24.42% when you add in the federal rate. The 5 states with the highest state-local rates are: Washington, Nebraska, New York, Florida, & Illinois. The 5 with the lowest rates are: Oregon, Nevada, Idaho, MONTANA, & West Virginia. FOUR cities...Chicago, Baltimore, Omaha, & New York City...have effective tax rates in excess of 25% of the customer bill. I know that you're literally dying to learn even more on cell phone taxes, so feel free to contact the Tax Foundation at: Borean@taxfoundation.org. I attempted to put through a call to them this morning as I was doing research for this Puffman Blog, but my cell phone dropped the call!

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