The Chelan City Council will likely accept a settlement agreement with Cingular Wireless during this week’s council meeting, which will cost the city about $3 thousand.

 

The lawsuit comes after the City, along with 150 other cities in the state, collected a municipal telephone tax from customers of New Cingular Wireless, who calculated the taxes due on the full amount of customer’s bills and remitted the tax collected to the respective government entity.

 

However, the Internet Tax Freedom Act from 1998, imposed a moratorium on state and local taxation on internet access, which was a portion of the amount billed to New Cingular’s customers.

 

The company was sued by its customers, and as part of a settlement agreement, is now asking cities to pay back the money that was erroneously collected and given to them.

 

Seven other North Central Washington Cities were also named in that lawsuit: Wenatchee, East Wenatchee, Cashmere, Quincy, Ephrata, George and Okanogan.

"CLICK HERE" for Audio