§120 Procedure If No Electronic Database Provided

Summary

If a State does not provide the electronic address-to-taxing-jurisdiction database called for in section 119, a home service provider will not have to pay taxes, charges, or fees that come only from assigning a street address to the wrong taxing area — so long as the provider uses enhanced ZIP codes to assign each street address to a specific taxing jurisdiction at every level and takes reasonable care. If an enhanced ZIP code crosses multiple same-level jurisdictions, the provider must pick one jurisdiction to use for that ZIP code. Changes made under section 121 count as following these rules. It is assumed (but can be rebutted) that the provider used reasonable care if it shows three things: it spent reasonable resources to build and keep a detailed electronic address-to-jurisdiction database, it has internal controls to quickly fix wrong assignments, and it used all reasonably available data about annexations, incorporations, reorganizations, or other boundary changes that affect accuracy. These protections apply for a State until the later of (1) 18 months after the nationwide standard numeric code is approved by the Federation of Tax Administrators and the Multistate Tax Commission, or (2) 6 months after the State or its designated database provider supplies the required database under section 119(a).