A. There is imposed a tax on the amounts paid for any intrastate telephone services by every person in the city using such services. The tax imposed by this section shall be at the rate of eight percent of the charges made for such services 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 the coin-operated telephones except that where such coin-operated service is 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; nor shall the term “charges” include charges for any type of service or equipment furnished by a service supplied subject to public utility regulations during the period in which the same or similar services or equipment are also available for sale or lease from persons other than a service supplier subject to public utility regulation; nor shall the words “telephone communication services” include land mobile service or maritime mobile services as defined in Section 2.1 of Title 47 of the Code of Federal Regulations, as said section existed on January 1, 1970. The term “telephone communication services” refers to that service which provides access to a telephone system and the privilege of telephone quality communication with substantially all persons having telephone stations which are part of the system. The telephone users tax is intended to, and does, apply to all charges billed to a telephone account having situs in the city, irrespective of whether a particular communication services originates and/or terminates within the city.
C. The tax imposed by this section shall be collected from the service user by the person providing the intrastate telephone communication services, or the person receiving payment for such services. The amount of the tax collected in one month shall be remitted to the tax administrator on or before the last day of the following month; or at the option of the person required to collect and remit the tax, an estimated amount of the tax collected, measured by the tax bill in the previous month, shall be remitted to the tax administrator on or before the last day of each month.
D. Notwithstanding the provisions of subsection A of this section, the tax imposed under this section shall not be imposed upon any person using intrastate telephone communication services to the extent that the amounts paid for such services are exempt to or not subject to the tax imposed under Division 2, Part 20 of the California Revenue and Taxation Code (emergency telephone users surcharge law). (Ord. 2012-08, § 1, 2012; Ord. 98-104, Exh. A § 2(part), 1998).