Washington Supreme Court Holds that Cable Internet Service May Not Be Taxed as Telephone Service
| June 26, 2008 |
 |
By Randy Gainer
The Washington Supreme Court ruled in a unanimous decision today that the City of Seattle may not tax Comcast's cable Internet service as a telephone business. The decision, Community Telecable of Seattle et al. v. City of Seattle, reverses a 2006 decision by the Washington Court of Appeals. The lower court had ruled that the City could tax Comcast's cable Internet service at the telephone business rate because cable Internet service includes a data transmission component and the definition of “telephone business” includes, among other things, data transmission over cable and telephone lines. The Supreme Court rejected the lower court's reasoning, observing that Comcast transforms and manipulates data rather then merely transmitting it and holding that the transmission component of Internet service cannot be separated from the other parts of the service. Continue reading...
