(a) There is imposed a tax upon every person in the city, using telephone communication services in the city. The tax imposed by this section shall be at the rate of 4.75 percent of the charges made to a service user for such services by a service supplier and shall be paid by the person paying for such services.
(b) As used in this section, the term “charges” shall not include charges for services paid for by inserting coins in a coin-operated telephone except that where such coin-operated services are furnished for a guaranteed amount, the amounts paid under such guarantee plus any fixed monthly or other periodic charge shall be included in the base for computing the amount of tax due.
(c) The tax imposed by this section is intended to, and does, apply to all charges billed to a telephone account having a situs in the city, irrespective of whether a particular communication service originates and/or terminates within the city. The situs shall be the service address, if known; otherwise the billing address.
(d) The term “telephone communication services” means the transmission, conveyance, or routing of voice, data, audio, video, or any other information or signals to a point, or between or among points, whatever the technology used, including, but not limited to, traditional telephone service, mobile telecommunications service, and broadband service (e.g. digital subscriber line (DSL), fiber optic, coaxial cable, and wireless broadband, including Wi-Fi, WiMAX, and Wireless MESH) to the extent not prohibited by federal and/or state law, now or in the future. “Telephone communication services” includes transmission, conveyance, or routing in which computer processing applications are used to act on the form, code or protocol of the content for purposes of transmission, conveyance or routing without regard to whether such service is refereed to as voice over internet protocol (VoIP) services or is classified by the Federal Communications Commission as enhanced or value added, and includes video and/or data service that is functionally integrated with “telephone communication services.”
(e) The tax imposed by this section applies to all telephone communication service however charged or billed, including, but not limited to prepaid services, post-paid services, 800 services (or any other toll-free numbers), or 900 services.
(f) The tax imposed by this section applies to ancillary telephone communication services, which are those services that enable or enhance access to telephone communication services. Ancillary telephone communication services include, but are not limited to, charges for connection, reconnection, termination, movement, or change of telephone communication services; detailed billing; central office and custom calling features (including but not limited to call waiting, call forwarding, caller identification and three-way calling); voice mail and other messaging services; directory assistance; access and line charges; local number portability charges; text and instant messaging; and conference calls.
(g) “Mobile telecommunication service” means commercial mobile radio service, as defined in Section 20.3 of Title 47 of the Code of Federal Regulations and as set forth in the Mobile Telecommunications Sourcing Act (4 U.S.C. Section 124) and the regulations thereunder.
(h) “Place of primary use” means the street address representative of where the customer’s use of the telephone communications service primarily occurs, which must be the residential street address or the primary business street address of the customer.
(i) “Service address” means either (1) the location of the service user’s telephone communication equipment from which the communication originates or terminates, regardless of where the communication is billed or paid; or (2) if the location of the equipment is unknown (e.g. mobile telecommunication service or VoIP service), the service address means the location of the service user’s place of primary use; or (3) for prepaid telephone communication service “service address” means the point of sale of the services where the point of sale is within the city, or if unknown, the known address of the service user (e.g. billing address or location associated with the service number), which locations shall be presumed to be the place of primary use.
(j) There is a rebuttable presumption that a telephone communication service, which is billed to a billing or service address in the city, is used, in whole or in part, within the city’s boundaries, and such service is subject to taxation under this section. There is also a rebuttable presumption that a prepaid telephone communication service sold within the city is primarily used, in whole or in part, within the city and is therefore subject to taxation under this section. If the billing address of the service user is different from the service address, the service address of the service user shall be used for purposes of imposing the tax. As used in this section, the term “charges” shall include the value of any other services, credits, property of every kind of nature, or other consideration provided by the service user in exchange for the telephone communication service.
(Ord. 5291 § 1 (part), 2014; Ord. 3781 § 1 (part), 1987)