Texas Tax Code - Section 151.061. Sourcing Of Charges For Mobile Telecommunications Services
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Texas Laws > Tax Code > Texas Tax Code - Section 151.061. Sourcing Of Charges For Mobile Telecommunications Services
§ 151.061. SOURCING OF CHARGES FOR MOBILE
TELECOMMUNICATIONS SERVICES. (a) In this section:
(1) "Home service provider" means the
facilities-based carrier or reseller with which the customer
contracts for the provision of mobile telecommunications services.
(2) "Place of primary use" means the street address
that is representative of where the customer's use of the mobile
telecommunications service primarily occurs. That location must be
the residential street address or the primary business street
address of the customer that is within the licensed service area of
the home service provider.
(3) "Electronic database" means a database provided by
the state or by a designated database provider to home service
providers. Such electronic database shall, allowing for de minimis
deviations, designate for each street address in the state,
including, to the extent practical, any multiple postal street
addresses applicable to one street location, the appropriate taxing
jurisdictions, and the appropriate code for each taxing
jurisdiction, for each level of taxing jurisdiction, identified by
one nationwide numeric code. The nationwide standard numeric codes
shall contain the same number of numeric digits, with each digit or
combination of digits referring to the same level of taxing
jurisdiction throughout the United States using a format similar to
FIPS 55-3 or other appropriate standard approved by the Federation
of Tax Administrators and the Multistate Tax Commission or their
successors. Each address shall be provided in standard postal
format. Such electronic database shall also provide the
appropriate code for each street address with respect to political
subdivisions which are not taxing jurisdictions when reasonably
needed to determine the proper taxing jurisdictions.
(b) This section applies to state and local sales and use
taxes administered and computed under this title or Title 3 and to
which this title or Title 3 applies, including this chapter.
(c) The federal Mobile Telecommunications Sourcing Act (4
U.S.C. Sections 116-126) governs the sourcing of charges for mobile
telecommunications services. In accordance with that Act:
(1) mobile telecommunications services provided in a
taxing jurisdiction to a customer, the charges for which are billed
by or for the customer's home service provider, shall be deemed to
be provided by the customer's home service provider; and
(2) all charges for mobile telecommunications
services that are deemed to be provided by the customer's home
service provider in accordance with this Act are authorized to be
subjected to tax, charge, or fee by the taxing jurisdictions whose
territorial limits encompass the customer's place of primary use,
regardless of where the mobile telecommunications services
originate, terminate, or pass through, and no other taxing
jurisdiction may impose taxes, charges, or fees on charges for such
mobile telecommunications services.
(d) If a customer believes that an amount of tax or an
assignment of place of primary use or taxing jurisdiction included
on a billing is erroneous, the customer shall notify the home
service provider in writing. The customer shall include in the
written notification:
(1) the customer's street address for the customer's
place of primary use;
(2) the account name and number for which the customer
requests the correction;
(3) a description of the error asserted by the
customer; and
(4) any other information that the home service
provider reasonably requires to process the request.
(e) Not later than the 60th day after the date the home
service provider receives a request under Subsection (d), the home
service provider shall review the provider's records and the
electronic database or enhanced zip code to determine the correct
amount of the tax imposed or the assignment of the customer's place
of primary use or taxing jurisdiction, as appropriate. If the home
service provider determines that the amount of tax imposed or the
assignment of place of primary use or taxing jurisdiction is
incorrect, the home service provider shall correct the error and
refund or credit any amount of tax erroneously collected from the
customer. The home service provider shall correct the error and
refund or credit the amount of tax erroneously collected from the
customer for a period of up to four years. If the home service
provider determines that the amount of tax imposed or the
assignment of place of primary use or taxing jurisdiction is
correct, the home service provider shall provide a written
explanation to the customer.
(f) The procedures prescribed by Subsections (d) and (e) are
the first course of remedy available to a customer requesting a
correction of assignment of place of primary use or of taxing
jurisdiction or a refund of or other compensation for taxes
erroneously collected by the home service provider.
(g) The state may provide an electronic database, described
in Subsection (a)(3), to a home service provider or, if the state
does not provide such an electronic database to home service
providers, the designated database provider may provide an
electronic database to a home service provider.
(h) The state or the designated database provider that
provides or maintains an electronic database described in
Subsection (a)(3) shall provide notice of the availability of the
then current electronic database, and any subsequent revisions
thereof, by publication in the manner normally employed by the
state.
(i) A home service provider using the data contained in an
electronic database described in Subsection (a)(3) shall be held
harmless from any tax, charge, or fee liability that otherwise
would be due solely as a result of any error or omission in such
database provided by the state or designated database provider.
The home service provider shall reflect changes made to such
database during a calendar quarter not later than 30 days after the
end of such calendar quarter.
(j) If neither the state nor the designated database
provider provides an electronic database as described in Subsection
(a)(3), a home service provider shall be held harmless from any tax,
charge, or fee liability in the state that otherwise would be due
solely as a result of an assignment of a street address to an
incorrect taxing jurisdiction if, subject to Subsection (n), the
home service provider employs an enhanced zip code to assign each
street address to a specific taxing jurisdiction for each level of
taxing jurisdiction and exercises due diligence at each level of
taxing jurisdiction to ensure that each such street address is
assigned to the correct taxing jurisdiction. If an enhanced zip
code overlaps boundaries of taxing jurisdictions of the same level,
the home service provider must designate one specific jurisdiction
within such enhanced zip code for use in taxing the activity for
such enhanced zip code for each level of taxing jurisdiction. Any
enhanced zip code assignment changed in accordance with Subsection
(n) is deemed to be in compliance with this section. For purposes
of this section, there is a rebuttable presumption that a home
service provider has exercised due diligence if such home service
provider demonstrates that it has:
(1) expended reasonable resources to implement and
maintain an appropriately detailed electronic database of street
address assignments to taxing jurisdictions;
(2) implemented and maintained reasonable internal
controls to promptly correct misassignments of street addresses to
taxing jurisdictions; and
(3) used all reasonably obtainable and usable data
pertaining to municipal annexations, incorporations,
reorganizations, and any other changes in jurisdictional
boundaries that materially affect the accuracy of such database.
(k) Subsection (j) applies to a home service provider that
is in compliance with the requirements of Subsection (j), if an
electronic database as defined in Subsection (a)(3) is not provided
until the later of:
(1) 18 months after the nationwide standard numeric
code described in Subsection (a)(3) has been approved by the
Federation of Tax Administrators and the Multistate Tax Commission;
or
(2) 6 months after the state or a designated database
provider in the state provides such database as prescribed in
Subsection (a)(3).
(l) A home service provider shall be responsible for
obtaining and maintaining the customer's place of primary use as
defined in Subsection (a)(2). Subject to Subsection (n), and if the
home service provider's reliance on information provided by its
customer is in good faith, a taxing jurisdiction shall:
(1) allow a home service provider to rely on the
applicable residential or business street address supplied by the
home service provider's customer; and
(2) not hold a home service provider liable for any
additional taxes, charges, or fees based on a different
determination of the place of primary use for taxes, charges, or
fees that are customarily passed on to the customer as a separate
itemized charge.
(m) Except as provided in Subsection (n), a taxing
jurisdiction shall allow a home service provider to treat the
address used by the home service provider for tax purposes for any
customer under a service contract or agreement in effect two years
after the date of the enactment of the Mobile Telecommunications
Sourcing Act (4 U.S.C. Sections 116-126) as that customer's place
of primary use for the remaining term of such service contract or
agreement, excluding any extension or renewal of such service
contract or agreement, for purposes of determining the taxing
jurisdictions to which taxes, charges, or fees on charges for
mobile telecommunications services are remitted.
(n) The state may:
(1) determine that the address used for purposes of
determining the taxing jurisdictions to which taxes, charges, or
fees for mobile telecommunications services are remitted does not
meet the definition of place of primary use under Subsection (a)(2)
and give binding notice to the home service provider to change the
place of primary use on a prospective basis from the date of notice
of determination. Before the state gives such notice of
determination, the customer shall be given an opportunity to
demonstrate in accordance with applicable state administrative
procedures that the address is the customer's place of primary use;
and
(2) determine that the assignment of a taxing
jurisdiction by a home service provider under Subsection (j) does
not reflect the correct taxing jurisdiction and give binding notice
to the home service provider to change the assignment on a
prospective basis from the date of notice of determination. The
home service provider shall be given an opportunity to demonstrate
in accordance with applicable state administrative procedures that
the assignment reflects the correct taxing jurisdiction.
(o)(1) If a taxing jurisdiction does not otherwise subject
charges for mobile telecommunications services to taxation and if
these charges are aggregated with and not separately stated from
charges that are subject to taxation, then the charges for
nontaxable mobile telecommunications services may be subject to
taxation unless the home service provider can reasonably identify
charges not subject to such tax, charge, or fee from its books and
records that are kept in the regular course of business.
(2) If a taxing jurisdiction does not subject charges
for mobile telecommunications services to taxation, a customer may
not rely upon the nontaxability of charges for mobile
telecommunications services unless the customer's home service
provider separately states the charges for nontaxable mobile
telecommunications services from taxable charges or the home
service provider elects, after receiving a written request from the
customer in the form required by the provider, to provide
verifiable data based upon the home service provider's books and
records that are kept in the regular course of business that
reasonably identifies the nontaxable charges.
Added by Acts 2001, 77th Leg., ch. 370, § 1, eff. Aug. 1, 2002.
Section: 151.054 151.055 151.056 151.057 151.058 151.059 151.060 151.061 151.101 151.102 151.103 151.104 151.105 151.106 151.107
Last modified: August 11, 2007
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