It's not just U.S. consumers who want a lighter tax burden on phone services, but the telecommunications companies that serve them as well. A recent study by the Telecommunications Tax Task Force of the Council on State Taxation (COST) says that telecom companies have to file thousands more tax returns than other businesses. No wonder telecom companies are fed up. The gory details: The average number of tax returns each telecommunication company has to file per year is a staggering 47,921, compared to 7,501 returns for a general business. New York saddles telecom companies with more returns than any other state: 5,632. How is this possible? Start with New York State's 406 jurisdictions requiring monthly local utility tax returns. Telecoms face 6,683 more taxing jurisdictions nationwide than general businesses -- there is such a thing as a mosquito abatement jurisdiction. The average state and local effective tax rate on telecom services -- some of which is paid directly by customers and some of which is levied on the companies, who then pass on the cost -- is 14.17% throughout the U.S., compared to 6.12% for general businesses, according to the COST study. The worst offender is a state not normally known for its high taxes: Virginia, with a 29.3% rate.
The BaaS model has been adopted across a wide range of industries due to its ability to streamline financial processes for non-banks and foster innovation. BaaS has several industry-specific use cases, where it creates new revenue streams. Banking as a Service (BaaS) is rapidly emerging as a growth market, allowing non-bank businesses to integrate banking services into their core products and online platforms. As defined by Juniper Research, BaaS is "the delivery and integration of digital banking services by licensed banks, directly into the products of non-banking businesses, commonly through the use of APIs." BaaS Market Development The core idea is that licensed banks can rent out their regulated financial infrastructure through Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) to third-party Fintechs and other interested companies. This enables those organizations to offer banking capabilities like payment processing, account management, and debit or credit card issuance without