Beside the Point.

The article presents the experience of a U.S. taxpayer who received a bill along with a note from New York Telephone Co. The note read that the New York City Sales Tax Law provides that a 2 per cent tax is to be billed on charges for Local telephone service, including the charges for message units, furnished within New York City. Message units used on calls from New York City to Southern Westchester and Nassau County, which are non-taxable, cannot be separated from those used on calls to New York City points, therefore, the 2 per cent sales tax is applied against the total charge for all message units billed. Thus the taxpayer wanted a refund from the utility company but he landed in a mess.