Thank you – and Happy Birthday!
Dear Editor:
On behalf of the LHP LifeSavers, a heartfelt ‘thank you’ to all who attended, sponsored and donated to the 3rd Annual LHP Luau held on Sept. 16 at Lighthouse Point Yacht & Racquet Club.
With your help, we were able to raise $11K to help local patients and their families in the fight against breast cancer and create a world with more birthdays!
Patty Miranda & Janis Sreenan
Lighthouse Point
P.S. Our entire family and staff wish to Mr. David Eller a Happy Birthday, filled with health, happiness and abundance of graces. – Olympia Flame Diner
RE: Taxes
Dear Editor:
In the 9-29 Observer Letters to the Editor, a resident asked to know where the money goes regarding the Communications Services Tax on his cell phone bill.
The communications services tax applies to telecommunications, cable, direct-to-home satellite, and related services. Two parts comprise the tax: the Florida communications services tax and the local communications services tax. The Communications Services Tax Simplification Law, which applied to bills issued by communications services providers on or after Oct. 1, 2001, also provided for locally imposed communications services tax to be administered by the Department of Revenue. Chapter 2001-140, Laws of Florida, established the revenue-neutral tax rates for the statewide and local communications services taxes.
Florida Portion
The Florida portion of the tax includes a state tax rate plus a gross receipts tax rate, for a combined rate of 9.17 percent. The rate for the state tax is 6.65 percent. The total rate for the gross receipts tax is 2.52 percent, which is composed of .15 percent and 2.37 percent.
Dealers may bill and collect the 6.65 percent state tax rate, along with the .15 percent gross receipts tax rate (a total of 6.8 percent), provided the amounts are properly reflected on the tax return.
Local Portion
Each local taxing jurisdiction (municipality, charter county, or unincorporated county) has a specific local tax rate. All municipalities in Broward County have a communications services tax. For major Broward County cities, the rates range from 4.80-5.62 percent. In Deerfield Beach, and the majority of Broward cities, the rate is 5.22 percent.
The communications tax was implemented on Oct. 1, 2001. Prior to that, the City imposed a franchise fee on the telecommunications providers. Local governments may exercise their home rule authority to impose a franchise fee upon a utility for granting a franchise and the privilege of using local government’s rights-of-way to conduct the utility business. The fee is considered fair rent for the use of such rights-of-way and consideration for the local government’s agreement not to provide competing utility services during the term of the franchise agreement.
Rami Altherr Musto
Marketing Communications Manager
City of Deerfield Beach
Palm trees on Dixie Hwy.
Dear Editor:
I can’t believe my eyes. I just looked outside the front bay door of my repair shop on Dixie Highway to the east, which, if you don’t know are railroad tracks in Deerfield, and they are planting palm trees. I cannot believe this. There are thousands of people in Florida losing their homes, and somebody had this bright idea: Palm trees on Dixie. There has got to be a better way to spend money than that!
Steven J. Fabrizio
Deerfield Beach
