I'm a Florida resident with a out-of-state phone that has bunch of local charges and taxes.I'm wondering if a Florida (Monroe County) cell phone has a bunch of charges?

All cell phones are taxed to the ridiculous

Cell phone companies base their tax rates on your billing address generally, not on your phone number. Unless you've somehow not changed your billing address, you're paying Florida taxes and fees already, and switching to a new Florida based phone won't affect that. (Florida has cell phone taxes that are among the highest.)The only way I know of to avoid them (or, more precisely, avoid dealing with them directly, as doubtless you're still paying them somehow under the covers) is to use a prepaid cell phone service like Tracfone, Net 10, Straight Talk, etc. The only extra tax you have to pay explicitly with them is any ordinary sales tax on the purchase of minutes.

My billing address is not in Florida. My bill lists the taxes--I know what they are. One is for the billing address city tax that is close to 9%.

DrewE wrote:Cell phone companies base their tax rates on your billing address generally, not on your phone number. Unless you've somehow not changed your billing address, you're paying Florida taxes and fees already, and switching to a new Florida based phone won't affect that. (Florida has cell phone taxes that are among the highest.)The only way I know of to avoid them (or, more precisely, avoid dealing with them directly, as doubtless you're still paying them somehow under the covers) is to use a prepaid cell phone service like Tracfone, Net 10, Straight Talk, etc. The only extra tax you have to pay explicitly with them is any ordinary sales tax on the purchase of minutes.In Oklahoma, the state collects an add-on 911 service charge whenever I buy Tracfone minutes. The other taxes (and universal service charge) are no doubt buried in the basic cost, collected from Tracfone by the service provider who has to pay them to the respective governments.

Luke Porter wrote:I'm a Florida resident with a out-of-state phone that has bunch of local charges and taxes.I'm wondering if a Florida (Monroe County) cell phone has a bunch of charges?I just switched to a Florida cell phone because my Wisconsin cell had so many extra charges and taxes on it too.I use Straight Talk now with a Florida number. When I buy my pre-paid card at Walmart the only additional charge is the Florida state sales tax and nothing else. Albiet I do have a problem with how they can charge sales tax on a service. You phone usage is not a taxable product.I also dropped my iphone/att because of all the extra charges they kept coming up with that took my bill from 100 to over 150.I found the ONLY way to not have to pay all those ridiculous made up 'extra' charges is to go prepaid no contract. I pay 45 bucks a month now for unlimited talk, text and date plus just the Florida sales tax.And I don't have to give them one iota of personal info. Not even a credit card number because I pay cash for the prepaid card.Makes me happy.:W

Florida Cell Phone Taxes/Charges | Good Sam Community

rockhillmanor
Explorer
Jan 28, 2015
Gene&Ginny wrote:
I get my Tracfone service cards from Walmart using email delivery. No tax charged even though my state has a 7% sales tax. If I buy the card in the store I do pay a tax.

Here is the sumary fom a recent 60 minute 90 day card:

Subtotal: $19.88
Shipping: Free
Tax: $0.00
Order total: $19.88

That's very interesting. Can you get Straight Talk cards on line too?
Gene_Ginny
Explorer
Jan 29, 2015
rockhillmanor wrote:
... That's very interesting. Can you get Straight Talk cards on line too?
Yes you can. I have only purchased the Straight Talk cards for the "Home Phone" and there is a tax for them. I don't know about the cell phone plans. The email delivery works well for me.

Here is the Walmart page with the cards Link ... and more stuff ...
fla-gypsy
Explorer
Jan 29, 2015
rockhillmanor wrote:
Luke Porter wrote:
I'm a Florida resident with a out-of-state phone that has bunch of local charges and taxes.

I'm wondering if a Florida (Monroe County) cell phone has a bunch of charges?

I just switched to a Florida cell phone because my Wisconsin cell had so many extra charges and taxes on it too.

I use Straight Talk now with a Florida number. When I buy my pre-paid card at Walmart the only additional charge is the Florida state sales tax and nothing else.

Albiet I do have a problem with how they can charge sales tax on a service. You phone usage is not a taxable product.

I also dropped my iphone/att because of all the extra charges they kept coming up with that took my bill from 100 to over 150.

I found the ONLY way to not have to pay all those ridiculous made up 'extra' charges is to go prepaid no contract. I pay 45 bucks a month now for unlimited talk, text and date plus just the Florida sales tax.

And I don't have to give them one iota of personal info. Not even a credit card number because I pay cash for the prepaid card.
Makes me happy.:W

Nice creative thinking on avoiding taxes and protecting privacy. Now if we could stop the NSA from intercepting every call we could return to some real privacy.

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