The Newest Cell Phone Game

Scott Woolley of Forbes has an interesting strategy for avoiding taxes on his cell phone bill: get a phone number from the area within the U.S. that has low wireless telecommunication taxes (in Woolley's case, Idaho)! (HT: Robert Lawson of Division of Labour.)

If, after reading the Forbes' article, you're curious as to what the effective total wireless service taxes being charged in your state might be, in the interest of "shopping" your wireless service, the Tax Foundation has a comprehensive table showing state by state wireless taxes, which Political Calculations' presents below using dynamic tables. Just click the column heads to rank the data in the table from highest to lowest, or vice versa:

2004 U.S. State-by-State Total Federal, State and Local Wireless Telecommunication Tax Rates

State	Effective State and Local Tax Rate (%)	Total Effective Tax Rate (%)
Alabama	9.88	15.93
Alaska	7.48	13.53
Arizona	9.70	15.75
Arkansas	13.68	19.73
California	10.23	16.28
Colorado	12.10	18.15
Connecticut	5.96	12.01
Delaware	4.83	10.88
Florida	16.10	22.15
Georgia	15.85	21.90
Hawaii	5.99	12.04
Idaho	4.11	10.16
Illinois	18.90	24.95
Indiana	9.11	15.16
Iowa	9.39	15.44
Kansas	20.28	26.33
Kentucky	12.81	18.86
Louisiana	10.73	16.78
Maine	7.25	13.30
Maine	4.32	10.37
Maryland	25.26	31.31
Michigan	18.10	24.15
Minnesota	6.71	12.76
Mississippi	12.58	18.63
Missouri	21.74	27.79
Montana	3.83	9.88
Nebraska	23.17	29.22
Nevada	1.92	7.97
New Hampshire	6.26	12.31
New Jersey	6.69	12.74
New Mexico	6.54	12.59
New York	15.24	21.29
North Carolina	16.78	22.83
North Dakota	9.47	15.52
Ohio	8.50	14.55
Oklahoma	17.92	23.97
Oregon	11.15	17.20
Pennsylvania	15.28	21.33
Rhode Island	16.76	22.81
South Carolina	12.60	18.65
South Dakota	6.53	12.58
Tennessee	11.81	17.86
Texas	23.24	29.29
Utah	12.31	18.36
Vermont	5.22	11.27
Virginia	27.72	33.77
Washington	17.21	23.26
Washington, DC	12.19	18.24
West Virginia	21.41	27.46
Wisconsin	5.08	11.13
Wyoming	10.04	16.09

The U.S. federal government places a 6.05% tax upon wireless communication services, which has been rolled into the total effective tax rate data above. The original source of the wireless tax data is the Council on State Taxation (COST).