Title 4Flag and Seal; Seat of Government; StatesRelease 119-73

§123 Scope; special rules

Title 4 › Chapter CHAPTER 4— - THE STATES › § 123

Last updated Apr 6, 2026|Official source

Summary

It keeps state and local tax authorities able to collect a tax, charge, or fee from a customer who did not give their primary location. If a place does not normally tax mobile service but the bill mixes taxable and non-taxable charges, the non-taxable part can be taxed unless the customer’s home service provider can reasonably identify the non-taxable amounts from its regular business records. A customer cannot treat mobile charges as tax-free unless the provider either lists those non-taxable charges separately or, after a written request in the form the provider requires, gives verifiable data from its regular books showing which charges are not taxable.

Full Legal Text

Title 4, §123

Flag and Seal; Seat of Government; States — Source: USLM XML via OLRC

(a)Nothing in sections 116 through 126 modifies, impairs, supersedes, or authorizes the modification, impairment, or supersession of, any law allowing a taxing jurisdiction to collect a tax, charge, or fee from a customer that has failed to provide its place of primary use.
(b)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.
(c)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.

Legislative History

Notes & Related Subsidiaries

Editorial Notes

References in Text

Act, referred to in subsec. (a), probably means the Mobile Telecommunications Sourcing Act, Pub. L. 106–252, July 28, 2000, 114 Stat. 626, which enacted sections 116 to 126 of this title and provisions set out as notes under section 1 and 116 of this title. For complete classification of this Act to the Code, see

Short Title

of 2000 Amendment note set out under section 1 of this title and Tables.

Statutory Notes and Related Subsidiaries

Effective Date

Application of Amendment Section effective
July 28, 2000, and applicable only to customer bills issued after the first day of the first month beginning more than 2 years after
July 28, 2000, see section 3 of Pub. L. 106–252, set out as a note under section 116 of this title.

Reference

Citations & Metadata

Citation

4 U.S.C. § 123

Title 4Flag and Seal; Seat of Government; States

Last Updated

Apr 6, 2026

Release point: 119-73