Why is telecommunications taxed like a sin?

[Commentary] The way governments in the United States treat telecommunications providers, you would think that the providers’ services came with a Surgeon General warning. Generally speaking, governments impose greater taxes on activities they want to discourage, such as smoking, or on things that their citizens are less likely to consume, such as rental cars. But telecom falls into neither category. So why is telecom taxed so heavily? And why are there so many different taxes and fees that some consultants and lawyers have built careers out of helping telecom companies decipher how much to pay and which forms to file? If we want more competition and more infrastructure, we should lower businesses costs by eliminating many of these taxes. At a minimum we need to continue to protect the internet from taxes and be diligent to not allow taxes and fees to slow down the internet of things.

[Jamison is the director and Gunter Professor of the Public Utility Research Center at the University of Florida; he served on President trump’s FCC transition team]