As we discussed last week, Verizon's taking increasing heat of its use of sophisticated financial tricks that allow the carrier to unload unwanted assets and debt without having to pay taxes. The problem has traditionally been that this financial maneuver (known as a Reverse Morris Trust) has resulted in bankruptcies for the companies either being spun off or used as acquisition partners, and a lot of headaches for broadband consumers. As Verizon now attempts to sell 6 million DSL users across 14 states to Frontier using the same method, they've found their favorite tax trick has been made illegal under a House version of a new federal jobs bill:You shouldn't be surprised if the ban on Reverse Morris Trusts "magically" disappears as the law winds its way through the legislative process. It has been a very popular financial tactic to avoid taxation, used by Kraft, Viacom, Disney and other companies. The Reverse Morris Trust, made legal since 1997, would prevent Verizon from paying any taxes on the $8.5 billion Frontier deal. Given Verizon's "makeover" (selling off all rural DSL and landline markets) has involved tens of thousands of terminated employees -- unions have been lobbying hard to have the Reverse Morris Trust eliminated from the Verizon accounting arsenal.

As the link above illustrates, Verizon hasn't specifically made many friends in West Virginia -- given that they've neglected the state's aging copper infrastructure for years to focus their attentions elsewhere. Unions in the state have also been complaining for most of the decade that they haven't been given the necessary resources to do their jobs. As a result, regulators have stated that consumer complaints in the state have skyrocketed over the last few years.