Tax Policy Center

Fiscal Facts

January 22, 2018
Annual Telephone Receipts
Fact: 
Federal telephone excise tax receipts were less than 0.1% of all tax revenues in 2015, down from a high of 1.4% in 1950. The tax rate was fixed at a permanent 3% rate in 1990, but revenues dropped sharply in the mid-2000s after IRS lost a court case on the tax.