The tax man cometh (or Do the Math)
We got a new iPhone 3G yesterday. Yes I can officially say I am an Apple iPhone developer without having my NDA license pulled.
I got the Estimate of the first bill and without any taxes or surcharges it comes out to $74.99 (USD). It includes 450 voice minutes, unlimited data plan and 200 text messages (which comes out to about $1,200 per megabyte of data, do the math). Looking at the bottom, the total estimate comes out to $91.21 (USD) per month.
What ?
That is a $16.22 difference. That’s 22% of the total bill ! Yes 22%, OK wait a minute, lets look at the breakdown of the taxes and “adjustments”
| Regulatory Cost Recovery Charge | .43 |
| Federal Universal Service Fund | 2.28 |
| State Universal Service Fund | - |
| State and Local Tax | 10.16 |
| 911 Fee | 3.22 |
| Other AT&T Surcharges | .13 |
| Total | $16.22 (or 22% of $74.99) |
(AT&T imposes a Regulatory Cost Recovery Cost Recovery Charge of up to 1.25 to help defray costs incured in complying with State and Federal telecom regulation.)
That means AT&T charges me a fee so they can do business or in other words, I am paying the AT&T fee to the government for AT&T AND AT&T is charging me to help me pay the fee to the government?
Wow, talk about double talk.
Does any one even notice their Bills any more ?
Can you imagine if you went to the grocery market and notice that mumbo jumbo at the bottom of your bill?
I guess someone needs to pay the money for the greedy needy Wall Street slimeballs professionals Bailout
Sigh
