Taxes & Surcharges
Taxes & Surcharges
ASTAC collects various taxes and surcharges each month that appear on your bill.
Here is a brief explanation and rates for each charge.
Description:
This federal fee recovers a portion of the costs incurred in the provisioning and maintenance of telephone service. It is administered by the Federal Communications Commission.
Rate Per Line:
Residential $0.00; Business $3.00
Effective:
July 1, 2017
Description:
The Alaska Universal Service Fund (AUSF) was established to promote the efficiency, availability and affordability of universal telephone service in Alaska.
Rate:
The landline rate is 10%
Effective:
January 1, 2020
Description:
The costs to operate the E911 emergency response systems are recovered through this surcharge. The money ASTAC collects is passed through to the Anchorage municipality who builds and maintain these public service systems. If you have a billing address in this area, your services will have this charge added.
Rate Per Line:
$2.00 flat charge
Effective:
December 1, 2016
Description:
The costs to operate Telecommunications Relay Service for the hearing and/or speech impaired are recovered by this Universal Access Surcharge.
Rate Per line:
$ 0.09 for consumer, wireless & business customers.
Effective:
May 16, 2020
Description:
The revenue collected from the telephone excise tax goes into the general receipts of the U.S. Treasury.
Rate:
3.00%
Effective:
January 1, 1966
Description:
The Federal Universal Service fund helps provide comparable telephone rates in rural areas throughout the nation by offsetting the high cost of providing service in these areas. ASTAC receives money from this fund to keep local rates affordable and comparable to rates in urban areas.
Rate:
The rate is 19.6%.
Effective:
April 1, 2020
Description:
The Regulatory Cost Charge provides funding to operate the Regulatory Commission of Alaska.
Rate:
1.232% of local service charges.
1.878% of intrastate (long distance) service charges.
Effective:
January 1, 2020
Description:
A fee administered by the RCA which combines with other charges to support the costs of the network.
Rate:
Residential and Business is $5.75 per line
Â
Effective:
August 1, 2015
Description:
The Subscriber Line Charge is a fee that you pay to your local phone company that connects you to the telephone network. Local telephone companies recover some of the costs of telephone lines connected to your home or business through this monthly charge on your local telephone bill. Sometimes called the federal subscriber line charge, this fee is regulated and capped by the FCC, not by state Public Utility Commissions. It is not a tax or a fee charged by the government. The money received from the subscriber line charge goes directly to local telephone companies. To ensure that all Americans can afford at least a minimal level of basic telephone service, the FCC will not allow phone companies to charge more than $6.50 for a single consumer line.
Rate per line:
Residential is $6.50; Business is $9.20.
Effective:
July 1, 2010