Verizon doesn't duck its fair share of taxes

Editor:

Your Feb. 25 editorial "Tax ducking: West Virginia firms" unfortunately relied on inaccurate data from Citizens for Tax Justice, a union-orchestrated front group whose board is dominated by national labor leaders. The fact is, Verizon is one of the largest taxpayers and investors in America. The company complies with all tax laws and pays its fair share of taxes.

According to Verizon's latest Form 10-K filing, the company has paid more than $11.1 billion in taxes over the past three years - including nearly $3.4 billion in 2012 alone. Verizon's 2010-12 payments include more than $1.5 billion in income taxes, $4 billion in employment taxes, and $5.6 billion in property and other taxes.

Assertions that Verizon has avoided paying taxes are demonstrably false and misleading. For example, Verizon's deferred tax liability often is wrongly characterized as a loophole, even though deferred taxes do not reduce Verizon's tax liability. U.S. economic development policy spreads out, or defers, some federal tax payments over a longer period of time for companies that invest in America's technology infrastructure. That's because investment in infrastructure creates jobs.

In 2010-12, while Verizon made more than $11.1 billion in tax payments, it also invested nearly $50 billion in technology infrastructure. This has created and sustained great U.S. jobs - both in and outside of Verizon - as the company has deployed innovative broadband technologies in West Virginia and nationwide.

Harry J. Mitchell

Director of public relations

Verizon Communications

Charleston

Telescope necessary for tracking asteroids

Editor:

Late last summer, the National Radio Astronomy Observatory in Green Bank learned that its National Science Foundation funding could be cut. Citizens and leaders questioned this logic but, outside of our own congressional delegation, we have heard little support from Washington.

Now, one asteroid later, in a Washington Post article, Congressmen Holt, of New Jersey, and Edwards, of Maryland, discuss the importance of funding programs that track asteroids. They conclude: "We should make the investments necessary to track near-Earth objects and prepare for disasters of all kinds."

U.S. House Science, Space and Technology Committee Chairman Lamar Smith, of Texas, announced his committee would hold a hearing to examine ways to better identify and address asteroids that pose a potential threat to Earth.

Now is perhaps the opportune time to remind our leaders in Washington that the National Radio Observatory is an integral component in our Very Long Baseline Array (VLBA), a network of telescopes that, among other duties, is tasked with "Tracking Near-Earth Asteroids" - such as Asteroid 2012 DA14.

While discussing investments in new research and inventions intended to track asteroids, it may be wise to also consider not defunding a valuable system already in place, the NRAO.

Agust Gudmundsson

Marlinton

W.Va. tax insanity drives resident away

Editor:

I am a retired Florida state employee. Eight years ago I bought a home and land in Rosedale, Gilmer County. Three years ago I moved my primary residence there from Florida. I pay my taxes in full and in a timely fashion, including income tax. So imagine my upset when, three weeks after paying the 2012 income tax on my retirement, I received a letter advising me that I owe $73 in penalty because I paid all at once!

Since my tax liability was over $600, I was somehow supposed to have the state of Florida deduct for West Virginia, except that won't be done. So when I called the Tax Department, I reached a very polite but unhelpful young lady who laughed a lot about my problem. So the upshot is that I paid a penalty for paying in full.

This is insanity! West Virginia just lost me as a resident. I will continue to pay my property taxes and other fees, but I have moved back to Florida, where there is no income tax.

John Moran

Cocoa, Fla.