Illinois Compiled Statutes
Chapter 35 - REVENUE
35 ILCS 638/ - Mobile Telecommunications Sourcing Conformity Act.

(35 ILCS 638/1)
Sec. 1.
Short title.
This Act may be cited as the Mobile Telecommunications Sourcing Conformity Act.

(Source: P.A. 92-474, eff. 8-1-02.)
 
(35 ILCS 638/5)
Sec. 5.
Legislative intent.
The General Assembly recognizes that the
Mobile Telecommunications Sourcing Act, Public Law 106-252, codified at 4 U.S.C
Sections 116 through 126, was passed by the United States Congress to establish
sourcing requirements for state and local taxation of mobile telecommunication
services. In general, the rules provide that taxes on mobile
telecommunications services shall be collected and remitted to the jurisdiction
where the customer's primary use of the services occurs, irrespective of where
the mobile telecommunications services originate, terminate, or pass through.
By passing this legislation in the State of Illinois, the General Assembly
desires to implement that Act in this State by establishing the Mobile
Telecommunications Sourcing Conformity Act and to inform State and local
government officials of its provisions as it applies to the taxes of this
State.

(Source: P.A. 92-474, eff. 8-1-02.)
 
(35 ILCS 638/10)
Sec. 10.
Definitions.
As used in this Act:
"Charges for mobile telecommunications services" means any charge for, or
associated with, the provision of commercial mobile radio service, as defined
in Section 20.3 of Title 47 of the Code of Federal Regulations as in effect on
June 1, 1999, or any charge for, or associated with, a service provided as an
adjunct to a commercial mobile radio service, that is billed to the customer by
or for the customer's home service provider regardless of whether individual
transmissions originate or terminate within the licensed service area of the
home service provider.
"Customer" means (i) the person or entity that contracts with the home
service provider for mobile telecommunications services or (ii) if the end
user of mobile telecommunications services is not the contracting party, the
end user of the mobile telecommunications services, but this clause (ii)
applies
only for the purpose of determining the place of primary use. "Customer" does
not include (i) a reseller of mobile telecommunications service or (ii) a
serving carrier under an arrangement to serve the customer outside the home
service provider's licensed service area.
"Designated database provider" means a corporation, association, or other
entity representing all the political subdivisions of a State that is:
"Enhanced zip code" means a United States postal zip code of 9 or more
digits.
"Home service provider" means the facilities-based carrier or reseller with
which the customer contracts for the provision of mobile telecommunications
services.
"Licensed service area" means the geographic area in which the home service
provider is authorized by law or contract to provide commercial mobile radio
service to the customer.
"Mobile telecommunications service" means commercial mobile radio service, as
defined in Section 20.3 of Title 47 of the Code of Federal Regulations as in
effect on June 1, 1999.
"Place of primary use" means the street address representative of where the
customer's use of the mobile telecommunications service primarily occurs, which
must be:
"Prepaid telephone calling services" means the right to purchase exclusively
telecommunications services that must be paid for in advance that enables the
origination of calls using an access number, authorization code, or both,
whether manually or electronically dialed, if the remaining amount of units of
service that have been prepaid is known by the provider of the prepaid service
on a continuous basis.
"Reseller" means a provider who purchases telecommunications services from
another telecommunications service provider and then resells, uses as a
component part of, or integrates the purchased services into a mobile
telecommunications service. "Reseller" does not include a serving carrier with
which a home service provider arranges for the services to its customers
outside the home service provider's licensed service area.
"Serving carrier" means a facilities-based carrier providing mobile
telecommunications service to a customer outside a home service provider's or
reseller's licensed service area.
"Taxing jurisdiction" means any of the several states, the District of
Columbia, or any territory or possession of the United States, any
municipality, city, county, township, parish, transportation district, or
assessment jurisdiction, or any other political subdivision within the
territorial limits of the United States with the authority to impose a tax,
charge, or fee.

(Source: P.A. 92-474, eff. 8-1-02.)
 
(35 ILCS 638/15)
Sec. 15.
Application of this Act.
The provisions of this Act shall apply
as follows:
(a) General provisions. This Act shall apply to any tax, charge, or fee
levied by the State or a taxing jurisdiction within this State as a fixed
charge for each customer or measured by gross amounts charged to customers for
mobile telecommunications services, regardless of whether the tax, charge, or
fee is imposed on the vendor or customer of the service and regardless of the
terminology used to describe the tax, charge, or fee.
(b) General exceptions. This Act does not apply to:
(c) Specific exceptions. The provisions of this Act:
(d) Date of applicability. The provisions of this Act apply to customer
bills issued on or after August 1, 2002.

(Source: P.A. 92-474, eff. 8-1-02.)
 
(35 ILCS 638/20)
Sec. 20.
Sourcing rules for mobile telecommunications services.
(a) Notwithstanding the law of this State or any political subdivision of
this State, mobile telecommunications services provided in a taxing
jurisdiction to a customer, the charges for which are billed by or for the
customer's home service provider, shall be deemed to be provided by the
customer's home service provider.
(b) All charges for mobile telecommunications services that are deemed to be
provided by the customer's home service provider under this Act are authorized
to be subjected to tax, charge, or fee by the taxing jurisdictions whose
territorial limits encompass the customer's place of primary use, regardless of
where the mobile telecommunications services originate, terminate, or pass
through, and no other taxing jurisdiction may impose taxes, charges, or fees on
charges for such mobile telecommunications services.

(Source: P.A. 92-474, eff. 8-1-02.)
 
(35 ILCS 638/25)
Sec. 25.
Provision of electronic database.
(a) The State may provide an electronic database to a home service provider
or, if the State does not provide such an electronic database to home service
providers, then the designated database provider may provide an electronic
database to a home service provider.
(b) The electronic database, whether provided by the State or the designated
database provider, shall:
(c) The nationwide standard numeric codes shall contain the same number of
numeric digits with each digit or combination of digits referring to the same
level of taxing jurisdiction throughout the United States using a format
similar to FIPS 55-3 or other appropriate standard approved by the Federation
of Tax Administrators and the Multistate Tax Commission, or their successors.
Each address shall be provided in standard postal format.

(Source: P.A. 92-474, eff. 8-1-02.)
 
(35 ILCS 638/30)
Sec. 30.
Notice; updates.
If the State or a designated database provider
provides or maintains an electronic database described in Section 25, then the
State or the electronic database provider shall provide notice of the
availability of the then current electronic database, and any subsequent
revisions thereof, by publication in the manner normally employed for the
publication of informational tax, charge, or fee notices to taxpayers in the
State.

(Source: P.A. 92-474, eff. 8-1-02.)
 
(35 ILCS 638/35)
Sec. 35.
User held harmless.
A home service provider using the data
contained in an electronic database described in Section 25 shall be held
harmless from any tax, charge, or fee liability that otherwise would be due
solely as a result of any error or omission in the database provided by the
State or designated database provider. The home service provider shall reflect
changes made to the database during a calendar quarter not later than 30 days
after the end of the calendar quarter if the State or an electronic database
provider issues notice of the availability of an electronic database reflecting
the changes under Section 30.

(Source: P.A. 92-474, eff. 8-1-02.)
 
(35 ILCS 638/40)
Sec. 40.
Safe harbor.
(a) If neither the State nor a designated database provider provides an
electronic database under Section 25, a home service provider shall be held
harmless from any tax, charge, or fee liability that otherwise would be due
solely as a result of an assignment of a street address to an incorrect taxing
jurisdiction if, subject to Section 60, the home service provider employs an
enhanced zip code to assign each street address to a specific taxing
jurisdiction for each level of taxing jurisdiction and exercises due diligence
at each level of taxing jurisdiction to ensure that each such street address is
assigned to the correct taxing jurisdiction. If an enhanced zip code overlaps
boundaries of taxing jurisdictions of the same level, the home service provider
must designate one specific jurisdiction within the enhanced zip code for use
in taxing the activity for the enhanced zip code for each level of taxing
jurisdiction. Any enhanced zip code assignment changed in accordance with
Section 60 is deemed to be in compliance with this Section.
(b) For purposes of this Section, there is a rebuttable presumption that a
home service provider has exercised due diligence if the home service provider
demonstrates that it has:
(Source: P.A. 92-474, eff. 8-1-02.)
 
(35 ILCS 638/45)
Sec. 45.
Termination of safe harbor.
Section 40 applies to a home
service provider that is in compliance with the requirements of Section 40
until the later of:
(1) Eighteen months after the nationwide standard numeric code described in
Section 25 has been approved by the Federation of Tax Administrators and the
Multistate Tax Commission; or
(2) Six months after the State or a designated database provider in the
State provides such database as prescribed in Section 25.

(Source: P.A. 92-474, eff. 8-1-02.)
 
(35 ILCS 638/50)
Sec. 50.

Home service provider required to obtain and maintain customer's
place of primary use. A home service provider shall be responsible for
obtaining and maintaining the customer's place of primary use, as defined in
this Act. Subject to Section 60, and if the home service provider's reliance
on information provided by its customer is in good faith, a taxing jurisdiction
shall:
(1) allow a home service provider to rely on the applicable residential or
business street address supplied by the home service provider's customer; and
(2) not hold a home service provider liable for any additional taxes,
charges, or fees based on a different determination of the place of primary use
for taxes, charges, or fees that are customarily passed on to the customer as a
separate itemized charge.

(Source: P.A. 92-474, eff. 8-1-02.)
 
(35 ILCS 638/55)
Sec. 55.

Primary place of use for service contracts in effect on or
before July 28, 2002. Except as provided in Section 60, a taxing jurisdiction
shall allow a home service provider to treat the address used by the home
service provider for tax purposes for any customer under a service contract or
agreement in effect on or before July 28, 2002 as that customer's place of
primary use for the remaining term of the service contract or agreement,
excluding any extension or renewal of the service contract or agreement, for
purposes of determining the taxing jurisdictions to which taxes, charges, or
fees on charges for mobile telecommunications services are remitted.

(Source: P.A. 92-474, eff. 8-1-02.)
 
(35 ILCS 638/60)
Sec. 60.

Determination by taxing jurisdiction or State concerning place of
primary use; notice to home service provider. A taxing jurisdiction or the
State, on behalf of any taxing jurisdiction or taxing jurisdictions within this
State, may:
(a) determine that the address used for purposes of determining the taxing
jurisdictions to which taxes, charges, or fees for mobile telecommunications
services are remitted does not meet the definition of place of primary use in
this Act and give binding notice to the home service provider to change the
place of primary use on a prospective basis from the date of notice of
determination if:
(b) determine that the assignment of a taxing jurisdiction by a home service
provider under Section 40 does not reflect the correct taxing jurisdiction and
give binding notice to the home service provider to change the assignment on a
prospective basis from the date of notice of determination if:
(Source: P.A. 92-474, eff. 8-1-02.)
 
(35 ILCS 638/65)
Sec. 65.

No change to authority of taxing jurisdiction to collect tax if
customer fails to provide place of primary use. Nothing in this Act 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.

(Source: P.A. 92-474, eff. 8-1-02.)
 
(35 ILCS 638/70)
Sec. 70.

Tax may be imposed on items not subject to taxation if those
items not separately stated. 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.

(Source: P.A. 92-474, eff. 8-1-02.)
 
(35 ILCS 638/75)
Sec. 75.
Customers and otherwise non-taxable 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.

(Source: P.A. 92-474, eff. 8-1-02.)
 
(35 ILCS 638/80)
Sec. 80.

Customers' procedures and remedies for correcting taxes and
fees.
(a) If a customer believes that he or she is being charged an improper
amount of tax or is not subject to a tax imposed under the Simplified Municipal
Telecommunications Tax Act for a telecommunications service covered by the term
"mobile telecommunications" under this Act, he or she shall follow the
procedures outlined in subsection (c) of Section 5-42 of the Simplified
Municipal Telecommunications Tax Act. The procedures outlined in subsection (c)
of Section 5-42 of the Simplified Municipal Telecommunications Tax Act shall
also apply to the home service provider, the Department, and municipalities.
(b) Nothing in subsection (a) shall apply to a municipality that directly
receives collected tax revenue from a retailer under subsection (b) of Section
5-40 of the Simplified Municipal Telecommunications Tax Act for a
telecommunications service covered by the term "mobile telecommunications
service" under this Act. In lieu of subsection (a), a customer may seek
relief under subsection (c) only if a municipality directly receives collected
tax
revenue from a retailer under subsection (b) of Section 5-40 of the Simplified
Municipal Telecommunications Tax Act for a telecommunications service covered
by the term "mobile telecommunications service" under this Act.
(c) For municipalities covered under subsection (b) of Section 5-40 of the
Simplified Municipal Telecommunications Tax Act,
if a customer believes that an amount of tax or assignment of place of
primary use or taxing jurisdiction included on a billing is erroneous, the
customer shall notify the home service provider in writing. The customer shall
include in this written notification the street address for her or his place of
primary use, the account name and number for which the customer seeks a
correction of the tax assignment, a description of the error asserted by the
customer, and any other information that the home service provider reasonably
requires to process the request. Within 60 days after receiving a notice under
this subsection (c), the home service provider shall review its
records and the
electronic database or enhanced zip code used pursuant to Section 25 or 40 to
determine the customer's taxing jurisdiction. If this review shows that the
amount of tax, assignment of place of primary use, or taxing jurisdiction is in
error, the home service provider shall correct the error and refund or credit
the amount of tax erroneously collected from the customer for a period of up to
2 years. If this review shows that the amount of tax, assignment of place of
primary use, or taxing jurisdiction is correct, the home service provider
shall provide a written explanation to the customer. If the customer is dissatisfied with the response of the home
service
provider under this Section, the customer may seek a correction or refund or
both from the
municipality that directly receives collected tax revenue from a retailer
pursuant to subsection (b) of Section 5-40 of the Simplified Municipal
Telecommunications Tax Act for a telecommunications service covered by the term
"mobile telecommunications service" under this Act.
(d) The procedures set forth in subsections (b) and (c) shall be the first
course of remedy
available to customers seeking correction of assignment of place of primary use
or taxing jurisdiction or a refund of or other compensation for taxes, charges,
and fees erroneously collected by the home service provider, and no cause of
action based upon a dispute arising from these taxes, charges, or fees shall
accrue until a customer has reasonably exercised the rights
and procedures set forth in this Section.

(Source: P.A. 92-474, eff. 8-1-02; 92-602, eff. 7-1-02.)
 
(35 ILCS 638/85)
Sec. 85.
Inseverability clause.
If a court of competent jurisdiction
enters a final judgment on the merits that (i) is based on federal law, (ii) is
no longer subject to appeal, and (iii) substantially limits or impairs the
essential elements of Sections 116 through 126 of Title 4 of the
United States Code, then the provisions of this Act are invalid and have no
legal effect as of the date of entry of such judgment.

(Source: P.A. 92-474, eff. 8-1-02.)
 
(35 ILCS 638/905)
Sec. 905.
(Amendatory provisions; text omitted).

(Source: P.A. 92-474, eff. 8-1-02; text omitted.)
 
(35 ILCS 638/910)
Sec. 910.
(Amendatory provisions; text omitted).

(Source: P.A. 92-474, eff. 8-1-02; text omitted.)
 
(35 ILCS 638/915)
Sec. 915.
(Amendatory provisions; text omitted).

(Source: P.A. 92-474, eff. 8-1-02; text omitted.)
 
(35 ILCS 638/920)
Sec. 920.
(Amendatory provisions; text omitted).

(Source: P.A. 92-474, eff. 8-1-02; text omitted.)
 
(35 ILCS 638/999)
Sec. 999.
Effective date.
This Act takes effect on August 1, 2002.

(Source: P.A. 92-474, eff. 8-1-02.)

Structure Illinois Compiled Statutes