An Explanation of Taxes & Fees on a Verizon Residential Invoice

Verizon charges required state taxes and fees that are enforced by each state based upon the public utility commission and other state agencies. The amount of the state tax varies according to the state you live in. Taxes and fees include a state maintenance fee, state sales tax, state transaction privilege tax, state utility gross receipts tax and a state universal service fee. Contact your state's public utility commission if you have any questions concerning your state tax fee.

To cover the costs of providing 911 emergency calls, a 911 emergency fee is charged to all customers. The fee helps pay for both fire and police emergencies and is then administered to either local or statewide 911 agencies or to the state public utility commissions. If sent to state public utility commissions, then the public utility commissions are responsible for dispersing the funds to 911 agencies. The state law mandated fee amount is normally based upon either the percentage or revenue or the cost per telephone access line.

On behalf of the Internal Revenue Service, Verizon charges a city and federal tax to each customer. This city tax is for consumers who use telecommunications services and equipment, while the federal tax is based upon the usage of local telephone facilities. These taxes appear under "Local" on your bill.

Commonly know as the Federal Line Cost Charge, the Interstate Access Charge is an access charge that's used to compensate telephone service providers for the expense of dispatching long distance phone calls made by local consumers. Anyone who has a phone in his home or business is charged this fee whether long distance calls are placed or not.

Administered by the Federal Government, Universal Service Fees are charged to customers to assist government facilities such as health care facilities, schools, libraries and support programs for low-income individuals such as Lifeline Assistance and Link-Up America. The Federal Communications Commission and Congress mandated this fee as a way to help these government buildings and needy individuals have access to telephone service. The fee amount is determined by your total long distance charges for each month.

The Telecommunications Relay Service/Hearing Impaired/Telecommunications fee is a state-specific fee that's charged to customers as a way to compensate for providing services and equipment to those who are deaf and need special equipment and devices to use telephone services. Services and equipment includes hearing devices, phones for deaf individuals, braille pads and other required services and equipment.

The Telecom Service Excise Tax is a tax that's administered as a sales tax and allows Verizon to recover liability costs. The difference between a Telecom Excise tax and regular sales taxes is that the excise tax can be a liability of the customer or of Verizon. If Verizon is liable, by law it's allowed to recover the costs from customers by placing the tax on their telephone bills. This tax may be grouped together in the total monthly bill cost or on a separate line on your bill.