ITIF Welcomes House Passage of Wireless Tax Fairness Act

WASHINGTON- ITIF President Robert Atkinson today issued the following statement welcoming House passage by voice vote of a measure that would impose a five-year ban on discriminatory taxes on wireless services and devices by state and local governments:

"ITIF welcomes House passage of the Wireless Tax Fairness Act (HR 1002). This is the wrong time to slap new taxes on one of the most innovative and fastest growing segments of the economy. The expansion of wireless services and development of new devices and applications has helped create new businesses and stoked consumer demand for even more products and services. As I testified before the Judiciary Subcommittee on Commercial and Administrative Law in 2009, taxes on wireless services would stifle additional investment in wireless and broadband services and drive prices up for consumers in a regressive way. Whatever revenue individual state and local governments receive from these discriminatory taxes in the short run, the nation as whole will be worse off in the long run as productivity, economic activity and consumer choice is held back. We hope the Senate moves quickly to advance this legislation to President Obama's desk."