Weird Entertainment du jour: taxes and telecomm services

In the course of combing through the documents of rantWoman's relations with Beloved Telecomm company, RantWoman reviewd the long list of taxes and fees taht show up in her monthly bill as delivered through Beloved Telecomm provider's website. There are taxes for all kinds of things, because the state says we can, because the city says we should, because it is Monday, because ..., because...

There is a city tax of some kind. RantWoman is going to assume that the city tax somehow helps pay the person who collected these various resources.

Has RantWoman availed herself of the opportunity to have hours and hours of geek fun mastering every detail? Not yet.

There’s an FCC guide to understanding your bill at the link below this You can also call them at 1-888-CALL-FCC (1-888-225-5322); TTY: 1-888-TELL-FCC (1-888-835-5322) to file a complaint or ask for alternate formats of the information. Requests for alternate formats of FCC information can also be requested by email to fcc504@fcc.gov>.https://www.fcc.gov/guides/understanding-your-telephone-bill

Another source of information is the Washington State Utilities and Transportation Commission or WUTC that regulates carriers in the state. They have a consumer help number too. Here’s the site and the contact info:
www.utc.wa.gov/consumers/Pages/consumerRights.aspx>
WUTC Consumer Protection Help Line http://www.#.wa.gov
Toll Free: 1-888-333-9882 Email:  consumer@utc.wa.gov

Here’s a pretty good article about the wireless charges. http://money.cnn.com/2013/07/10/technology/mobile/wireless-taxes/
They say that Americans pay an average of 17.2% in taxes on their cell phone bills http://money.cnn.com/2013/07/10/technology/mobile/wireless-taxes/index.html ;, and that it’s 24.4% in Washington State. My guess is that is in part because we don’t have an income tax and so other taxes here tend to be higher.