The Treasury Department and IRS announced this morning that after losing in five circuit courts of appeals, the Government is throwing in the towel and will no longer seek to enforce the 3% excise tax on long-distance telephone calls enacted during the Spanish-American War of 1898 as a "luxury" tax on wealthy Americans who owned telephones. The IRS will will issue $15 billion in refunds to consumers for long-distance telephone service taxes paid over the past three years
I wonder how many tax dollars were spent on lawyers and legal fees throughout those five trips to various appeals courts? Any chance we could get a refund on all that too?
Anyway, bear this example in mind the next time you consider supporting some special tax for a specific project proposed by politicians. These taxes almost never go away. I remember several years back here in my home community the citizens (not me, I wasn't old enough to vote back then) imposed a 1% city sales tax on themselves to pay for a new floor/icing system at the local arena/hockey rink. Now, nearly a decade later, we're still paying that sales tax despite the fact that the floor has long since been fixed.
Last time I looked it was being used for "economic development."