Stoneleigh Customer Caught Up in Phone Tax Snafu

Todd Carpenter is a proud Baltimore County resident. But he isn't sure if his cell phone provider has gotten the memo.

Plug the Stoneleigh resident's ZIP code, 21212, into Google Maps, and you get "Baltimore, MD." The ZIP code's boundaries straddle the city line, covering neighborhoods like Rodgers Forge, Stoneleigh and Anneslie in the county, and Roland Park and Govans in the city.

This wasn't really a big deal for Carpenter until 2006, when he moved from the city to his current home on Kenleigh Road. But his old address may still be haunting him.

In 2004, Baltimore City enacted a $3.50 per month per line telecom tax. After moving to the county, Carpenter soon discovered the city telecom tax was still on his AT&T cell phone bill nine months later. He called AT&T, and the company refunded six months worth of the tax.

At the time, The Baltimore Sun reported that software issues had caused customers in split ZIP codes—ZIP codes that cross two or more jurisdictions or boundaries—to be charged the tax by mistake.

Dan Langan, an AT&T spokesman, said in an email that the carrier determines whether or not to charge the tax based on the address of the user's primary place of use, and the carrier now has "industry-leading" software to navigate split ZIP codes like Carpenter's.

Earlier this month, Carpenter got his bill for August and saw it was much higher than usual, perhaps due to use during Hurricane Irene. However, he also noticed he was being charged the city telecom tax again. He went through earlier bills and saw that he had been charged the city telecom tax on one of his two cell phones since January 2010, to the tune of $70 over 20 months.

Carpenter got on the phone, then shot off an email to AT&T customer care.

"I was told ad nauseam on the call with ATT's customer service team that because my address was 'Baltimore, MD,' I was subject to this tax/surcharge," he wrote in the email. "However, this is patently and abjectly false."

He continued: "I have been discussing this with my neighbors and several of them have also seen this charge on their bills. They were not aware of what it was and had never questioned it."

Langan said in an email that, in Carpenter's case, the primary place of use on one of his phones was registered at a Baltimore City address.

That's a revelation Carpenter found "totally stunning, because I don't know why they would have a different address."

Patch reached Carpenter Thursday on that very same cell phone line while he was traveling in Germany. He said he got a voicemail overnight from an AT&T official, but hadn't had the chance to listen to it.

Langan said if the tax was charged in error, the company will refund it.

"Customers who have questions about their bill should contact AT&T’s customer care line," Langan said. "Customers should routinely review their bills and call with questions about any charges they think are questionable."

If you're an AT&T user, you can learn more about managing your account on their website.