Delegate Bryant's telecom tax bill would take effect 2005

The Lynchburg paper has this article on a new telecom tax law in Virginia sponsored by Delegate Bryant, and which will take effect July 1, 2005. The article suggests the change in the law would lower telecom taxes in the cities and raise telecom taxes in low-tax rural areas.

What was passed this year and signed by the Governor was HB 1174, titled "An Act to establish a schedule for, and initiate Virginia's transition to, a new system for taxing telecommunications services in the Commonwealth." This "schedule" says that in the 2005 General Assembly, localities and the state will get together on the details of "a yet-to-be-named tax on all retail telecommunications service revenues," which tax "shall not be less than 4.5 percent and to the extent the state and local retail sales and use tax rate is greater than 4.5 percent, the tax may not exceed the state and local retail sales and use tax rate," and "will be assessed in lieu of any other state or local sales and use tax."