3.36.040 Telephone tax.

A. There is imposed a tax upon every person in the city, other than a telephone corporation, using intrastate, interstate or international telephone communication services in the city. The tax imposed by this section shall be at the rate of six percent of all charges made for such service and shall be paid by the person paying for such services.

B. As used in this section, the term "charge" shall not include charges for services paid for by inserting coins in coin-operated telephones except that where such coin-operated telephone service is furnished to a person for a guaranteed amount, the amounts paid under such guarantee plus any fixed monthly or other periodic charge shall be included in the base for computing the amount of tax due; nor shall the term "charges" include charges for any type of service or equipment furnished by a service supplier subject to public utility regulation during any period in which the same or similar services or equipment are also available for sale or lease from persons other than a service supplier subject to public utility regulation; nor shall the words "telephone communication services" include land mobile services or maritime mobile services as defined in Section 2.1 of Title 47 of the Code of Federal Regulations, as said section existed on January 1, 1970. The term "telephone communication services" refers to that service which provides access to a telephone system and the privilege of telephone quality communication with substantially all persons having telephone stations which are part of such telephone system. The telephone users tax is intended to, and does, apply to all charges billed to a telephone account having a situs in the city, irrespective of whether a particular communication service originates and/or terminates within the city.

C. Notwithstanding the provisions of subsection A of this section, the tax imposed under this section shall not be imposed upon any person for using telephone communication services to the extent that the amounts paid for such services are exempt from or not subject to the tax imposed under Division 2, Part 20 of the California Revenue and Taxation Code or the tax imposed under Title 26, Section 4251 of the United States Code.

D. The tax imposed by this section shall be collected from the service user by the person providing or receiving payment for the telecommunication services. The amount of the tax collected in one month shall be remitted to the tax administrator on or before the last day of the following month or at the option of the person required to collect and remit the tax, an estimated amount of tax collected, measured by the tax bill in the previous month, shall be remitted to the tax administrator on or before the last day of each month. (Ord. 95-1137 § 3, 1995; Ord. 95-1133 §§ 2--4, 1995; prior code § 30-46)

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