When used in this Article, the following terms shall have the following meanings:
(a) Access Line. "Access line" means any connection, whether by wire or by wireless technology, from a customer location to a provider of telephone communications services offered to the public for compensation. "Access line" includes the assignment of a 10-digit telephone number under the North American Numbering Plan for the purpose of providing telephone communications services, including without limitation voice over Internet protocol telephone communications services, using such telephone number.
(b) Billing Address. "Billing address" has the meaning given in Article 10 of this Code.
(c) High Capacity Trunk Line. "High capacity trunk line" shall mean a trunk line with a capacity of at least 24 channels over a high capacity service.
(d) Lifeline Service. "Lifeline service" means discounted telephone communications service available to eligible low income residential customers.
(e) Prepaid Calling Service. "Prepaid calling service" means the right to access telephone communications service, which must be paid for in advance and which enables the origination of calls using an access number or authorization code, whether manually or electronically dialed, and that is sold in predetermined units or dollars of which the number declines with use in a known amount, without the provisioning of an access line.
(f) Post-Paid Calling Service. "Post-paid calling service" means the telecommunications service obtained by making a payment on a call-by-call basis either through the use of a credit card or payment mechanism such as a bank card, travel card, credit card, or debit card, or by charge made to a telephone number which is not associated with the origination or termination of the telecommunications service without the provisioning of an access line.
(g) Service Address. "Service address" has the meaning given in Article 10 of this Code.
(h) Telephone Communications Service. "Telephone communications service" has the meaning given in Article 10 of this Code.
(i) Service Supplier. "Service supplier" means any person supplying an access line to any telephone communications service subscriber within the City and County of San Francisco or the billing agent of any such person.
(j) Telephone Communications Service Subscriber. "Telephone communications service subscriber" means any person required to pay a tax under this Article.
(k) Trunk Line. "Trunk line" means a line between a service supplier's switching device and a private branch exchange or automatic call distributing system, or other similar device, at a telephone communications service subscriber location, provided however that "trunk line" shall not include any such line which is marketed to customers and configured by the service supplier to deliver only calls to the subscriber location and cannot be used by the subscriber to originate outgoing calls from the subscriber location (e.g., direct inward dial lines).
(Added by Proposition O, § 2, 11/4/2008)
(a) There is hereby imposed a tax as provided in this Article on every person who subscribes to telephone communications services within the City and County of San Francisco, to the extent permitted by Federal and State law. The tax shall apply to each access line within the City's tax jurisdiction, including, without limitation, access lines billed to a telephone account having a situs in the City, as permitted by the Mobile Telecommunications Sourcing Act, 4 U.S.C. § 116 et seq. There is a rebuttable presumption that service billed to a billing address or provided to a service address in the City is used, in whole or in part, within the City's boundaries and that such service is subject to taxation under this article. The tax shall not apply to a prepaid calling service or a post-paid calling service.
(b) The amount of the tax imposed by this Section shall be paid, on a per-access-line basis, by the person paying for telephone communications service; however, no telephone communications service subscriber shall be required to pay more than $55,000.00 in tax per account per service location in any calendar year. The cost of wireless telephone communications services shall not be considered for purposes of this Subsection (b). The cap established by this subsection shall be adjusted annually in accordance with the increase in the Consumer Price Index; All Urban Consumers for the San Francisco/Oakland/San Jose Area for All Items as reported by the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics, or any successor to that index, as of December 31st of each year, beginning with December 31, 2009, and such increase shall take effect when 1) notice of the increase is given by the Controller in the manner generally used by the Controller for notification of fee or tax changes and 2) such increase is approved by the Mayor and Board of Supervisors by resolution.
(c) Only one payment of the tax shall be required for any access line, trunk line or high capacity trunk line, notwithstanding that access lines of more than one person are used in furnishing telephone communications service to a telephone communications service subscriber.
(Added by Proposition O, § 2, 11/4/2008)
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