| I was once asked this as the first question on a phone interview. That spoke volumes about the kind of company it was, and I resonded with "That is an inappropriate question at this time." At that point I knew that both of us have written the other one off. Fortunately, I was not despirate for a job. If this should ever happen to me again I might ask a second question, "May I speak to your boss?"
This is a tough question because the answer depends a lot of when it is asked. If it is asked early in the interview process, then you can beg off with a, "I still don't know enough about the job and the responsibilities to be able to answer that question."
If asked towards the end of the interview process, this response won't work since you should have done you homework and asked the right questions to know enough about the job.
I give them my standard speech, "I'm going to make a decision on accepting this job based on how well I like it." Then I generally give them a salary range and qualify it with, "depending on the benefits package. How much do I pay for insurance and what do I get for it? What does the 401K structure look like? How much vacation will I get? Are there any other monentary parts to the compensation package such as bonuses, stock options, profit sharing, etc. I just can't quote a flat salary." | 
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