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Senate Co-Sponsorship Memoranda
Senate of Pennsylvania
Session of 2023 - 2024
Regular Session
MEMORANDUM
| Posted: | December 19, 2022 04:08 PM |
|---|---|
| From: | Senator Kristin Phillips-Hill and Sen. Tracy Pennycuick |
| To: | All Senate members |
| Subject: | Wireless Network Tax Reform Code Parity |
| In the near future, we will be introducing legislation to clarify an outdated provision of the Tax Reform Code relating to sales tax on wireless network equipment. Our legislation will restore the parity for cellular and landline service and clarify that the sales tax exemption for wireless network equipment applies to the equipment that provides wireless voice and data services. In 2003, in order to create parity with traditional landlines, the General Assembly expanded the Gross Receipts Tax to include equipment on wireless networks but exempted this equipment from Pennsylvania’s Sales and Use Tax. This is the same treatment that applied to landline networks and continues today. Since then, the Gross Receipts Tax has generated approximately $4 billion in revenue for the Commonwealth. Since this exemption was written at a time when the iPhone was still four years away from launch, wireless networks subject to the sales tax exemption were defined as being used for voice service and did not contemplate internet access. As wireless devices and networks have become more of a tool for internet access and less for voice communication, and as wireless broadband has become more critical over the years, the need for this legislation is needed as a tool to incentivize network investment and provide additional broadband options. Please join us in co-sponsoring this important piece of legislation. |
Introduced as SB397