186-g. Wireless communications surcharge authorized. 1. Definitions. As used in this section, where not otherwise specifically defined and unless a different meaning is clearly required, all of the definitions of section one hundred eighty-six-f of this article shall apply to the surcharges authorized by this section.
2. Imposition of surcharge. (a) Notwithstanding any other provision of law to the contrary, and in addition to any other tax or fee imposed by this chapter or any other law, a city having a population of a million or more, and a county, other than a county wholly within such a city, acting through its local legislative body, is hereby authorized and empowered to adopt and amend local laws, ordinances or resolutions imposing a surcharge within the territorial limits of such city or county to take effect on or after December first, two thousand seventeen that shall include both (i) wireless communications service, as described in paragraph (b) of this subdivision; and (ii) prepaid wireless communications service, as described in paragraph (c) of this subdivision.
(b) Such surcharge on wireless communications service provided to a wireless communications customer with a place of primary use in a city or county authorized to impose the surcharge by this subdivision shall be imposed at the rate of thirty cents per month on each wireless communications device in service during any part of the month. The surcharge must be reflected and made payable on bills rendered to the wireless communications customer for wireless communications service.
(c) Such surcharge on the retail sale of each prepaid wireless communications service, whether or not any tangible personal property is sold therewith, shall be imposed at the rate of thirty cents per retail sale within a city or county authorized to impose the surcharge by this subdivision. A sale of a prepaid wireless communications service occurs in such city or county if the sale takes place at a seller's business location in such city or county. If the sale does not take place at the seller's place of business, it shall be conclusively determined to take place at the purchaser's shipping address in such city or county or, if there is no item shipped, at the purchaser's billing address in such city or county, or, if the seller does not have that address, at such address that reasonably reflects the customer's location at the time of the sale of the prepaid wireless communications service.
3. Any such local law, ordinance or resolution adopted pursuant to this section shall state the amount of the surcharges and the date on which both the wireless communications service supplier shall begin to add such surcharge to the billings of its customers and the prepaid wireless communications seller shall begin to collect such surcharge from its customers. No such local law, ordinance or resolution shall be effective unless a certified copy of such law, ordinance or resolution is mailed by registered or certified mail to the commissioner in accordance with the provisions of subdivisions (d) and (e) of section twelve hundred ten of this chapter.
4. Exemption. Lifeline consumers shall be exempt from the surcharges imposed by this section.
5. The surcharges must be reported and paid to the commissioner on a quarterly basis on or before the twentieth day of the month following each quarterly period ending on the last day of February, May, August and November, respectively. The payments must be accompanied by a return in the form and containing the information the commissioner may prescribe.
6. The surcharges must be added as a separate line item to bills furnished by a wireless communications service supplier to its customers, or must be added as a separate line item to a sales slip, invoice, receipt, or other statement of the price, if any, that is furnished by a prepaid wireless communications seller to a purchaser, and must be identified as the "public safety communications surcharge".
7. Each wireless communications service supplier and prepaid wireless communications seller is entitled to retain, as an administrative fee, an amount equal to three percent of its collections of the surcharges imposed under the authority of this section, provided that the supplier or seller files any required return and remits the surcharge due to the commissioner on or before its due date.
8. Applicable provisions. (a) Except as otherwise provided in this section, any surcharge imposed under the authority of this section shall be administered and collected by the commissioner in a like manner as the taxes imposed by articles twenty-eight and twenty-nine of this chapter. All the provisions of article twenty-eight and twenty-nine of this chapter, including the provisions relating to definitions, exemptions, returns, personal liability for the tax, collection of tax from the customer, payment of tax, and the administration of the taxes imposed by such article, shall apply to the surcharges imposed under the authority of this section so far as those provisions can be made applicable to the surcharges imposed under the authority of this section, with such modifications as may be necessary in order to adapt the language of those provisions to the surcharges imposed under the authority of this section. Those provisions shall apply with the same force and effect as if the language of those provisions had been set forth in full in this section, except to the extent that any of those provisions is either inconsistent with a provision of this section or is not relevant to the surcharge imposed under the authority of this section. For purposes of this section, any reference in this chapter to a tax or the taxes imposed by articles twenty-eight and twenty-nine of this chapter shall be deemed also to refer to the surcharges imposed under the authority of this section unless a different meaning is clearly required.
(b) Notwithstanding the provisions of paragraph (a) of this subdivision:
(1) the exemptions provided for in section eleven hundred sixteen of this chapter, other than the exemptions in paragraphs one, two and three of subdivision (a) of that section, shall not apply to the surcharges imposed under the authority of this section;
(2) the credit provided in subdivision (f) of section eleven hundred thirty-seven of this chapter shall not apply to this section.
9. All surcharge monies remitted to the commissioner under this section shall be expended only upon authorization of the legislative body of a city or county that imposes the surcharges pursuant to the authority of subdivision two of this section, and only for payment of system costs, eligible wireless 911 service costs, or other costs associated with the administration, design, installation, construction, operation, or maintenance of public safety communications networks or a system to provide enhanced wireless 911 service serving such city or county, including, but not limited to, hardware, software, consultants, financing and other acquisition costs. Such city or county shall separately account for and keep adequate books and records of the amount and object or purpose of all expenditures of all such monies. If, at the end of any fiscal year, the total amount of all such monies exceeds the amount necessary for payment of the above mentioned costs in such fiscal year, such excess shall be reserved and carried over for the payment of those costs in the following fiscal year.
Last modified: February 3, 2019