House passes five-year ban on new wireless taxes, now it's up to the Senate

The U.S. House of Representatives passed a resolution called the Wireless Tax Fairness Act of 2011 late Tuesday, which seeks to put a five-year moratorium on new wireless taxes; including those placed on consumer services and property, and also those placed on providers.

The resolution, unsurprisingly, sprung from the heart of the U.S. high tech world, Silicon Valley. The bill's co-sponsor is Zoe Lofgren, a Democratic representative for the 16th district of California, an area which includes the City of San Jose, and Santa Clara County. The bill's Republican sponsor is Trent Franks, of the sixth district of Arizona.

"This bill is a common sense approach to tackling the rapidly increasing and discriminatory nature of local and state wireless service taxation," Lofgren said on Tuesday. "We need to encourage the development and adoption of wireless broadband, not tax it out of existence. My legislation simply places a five-year freeze on new taxes that are solely imposed on wireless services. I’m hopeful that the Senate will take up and pass Senators Wyden and Snowe’s companion measure, S 543, so we can get this on the President’s desk."

Senator Wyden's (D-OR) take on the bill is slightly more vitriolic than Representative Lofgren's.

"Wireless is a prime example of how every time a new innovation hits the market – governments invent new ways to tax it. We should be encouraging wireless usage as it continues to revolutionize the way Americans work, study and interact with friends and family, and yet, the only products subject to more layers and higher levels of taxation in the U.S. are alcohol and tobacco products," a statement from Wyden said. "New innovations have a hard time realizing their promise when they’re buried under multiple layers of discriminatory taxes. This is why we took steps to bar multiple and discriminatory taxes on Internet access and services – like email — and I’m glad we are finally moving to extend those same protections to wireless products."

The companion bill in the Senate that Wyden and Snowe introduced has not moved since it was moved to the Senate Finance committee last March.

Still, the wireless industry considers the passage of the House resolution a victory.

"On behalf of the 300 million wireless customers in the U.S., CTIA applauds the Wireless Tax Fairness Act’s lead sponsors, Representatives Lofgren and Franks, who worked tirelessly to get the bill approved in the House," A statement from CTIA, The Wireless Association said. "Today’s vote is a crucial step toward providing wireless subscribers with some much needed relief by putting a five-year freeze on new, discriminatory taxes and fees on their monthly bills. In light of the challenging economy, we hope the U.S. Senate moves swiftly to pass the companion bill."