PRIA, Government Policy, Made Personal

Summary

Keeps existing tax rules in place and says when mobile phone charges can be left untaxed. If a customer does not give their main service location, state or local tax authorities can still collect taxes under their laws. If a government normally does not tax mobile phone service but the bill mixes those charges with taxable ones, the mixed mobile charges can be taxed unless the customer’s main phone company can reasonably identify nontaxable charges from its regular business records. A customer can only treat mobile charges as nontaxable if the phone company lists them separately on the bill or, after a written request in the company’s required form, gives verifiable data from its business records that clearly shows the nontaxable amounts.

Title 4, §123

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

(a)Act Does Not Supersede Customer’s Liability to Taxing Jurisdiction.—

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)Additional Taxable Charges.—

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)Nontaxable Charges.—

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.

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.

§123 Scope; Special Rules