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marigolds
Gainfully employed, finally
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join:2002-05-13
Saint Louis, MO
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Re: Find someone better?
said by marigolds  :said by BosstonesOwn :It's not that easy. The cable companies don't pay this tax ! Why should verizon I want to know why comcast isn't getting hit and why every company using those poles aren't. It looks like the loophole only applies to telephone companies, not to cable companies or utility companies. So yes, cable companies would already be paying the tax. The other utility companies are definitely already paying the property tax. After doing some checking up, the loophole definitely applies only to telephone companies. In a court case involving RCN, RCN was denied the ability to use the property tax loophole.
But... a cable company can transfer their assets to the right type of company and claim the loophole. In their case though, the loophole applies only on overhead wires over public roads (not wires over private roads) and they must carry at least one phone call. For phone companies, the exemption can apply to a much wider range of property (as demonstrated below). Other companies get the exemption on the wires, telephone companies get the exemption on wires, poles, and related machinery.
In response, Verizon, MCI, Sprint, and AT&T transfered all of their Massachusetts real property to qualifying "telephone and telegraph" companies. In Verizon's case, they transferred all of their physical assets to a Bermuda-based telephone and telegram company and reduced it's property tax bill from $3 million to $9,307. Sprint transferred its real property including all of its telecommunications switchs in Massachusetts to two Delaware based paper company that qualifies under the law.
There are other companies that also receive the exemption: banks, certain manufacturers, and software companies.
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Kylemaul
Lovin' My Firefox 1.5.x
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join:2001-03-30
North Port, FL
clubs:
 ·Verizon FIOS
| Wouldn't it be cheaper for Verizon to just avoid loophooles altogether? I mean, really, that -has- to add a lot of miles to their deployment to add all those loops.  
More seriously, I say let 'em go...maybe the lawmakers can focus on better consumer protection instead of knuckling under to the 'big boys'. (anti-fraud startups as mentioned earlier, etc...)
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