2005 California Revenue and Taxation Code Sections 41020-41027 Article 1. Imposition of the Surcharge

41020.  (a) A surcharge is hereby imposed on amounts paid by every
person in the state for intrastate telephone communication service in
this state commencing on July 1, 1977.
   (b) The surcharge imposed shall be at the rate of one-half of 1
percent of the charges made for such services to and including
November 1, 1982, and thereafter at a rate fixed pursuant to Article
2 (commencing with Section 41030).
   (c) The surcharge shall be paid by the service user as hereinafter
provided.
   (d) In accordance with the Mobile Telecommunications Sourcing Act
(P.L.  106-252), which is incorporated herein by reference, the
surcharge imposed under this section does not apply to any charges
for mobile telecommunications services billed to a customer where
those services are provided, or deemed provided, to a customer whose
place of primary use is outside this state.  Mobile
telecommunications services shall be deemed provided by a customer's
home service provider to the customer if those services are provided
in a taxing jurisdiction to the customer, and the charges for those
services are billed by or for the customer's home service provider.
   (e) For purposes of this section:
   (1) "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.
   (2) "Customer" means (A) the person or entity that contracts with
the home service provider for mobile telecommunications services, or
(B) if the end user of mobile telecommunications services is not the
contracting party, the end user of the mobile telecommunications
service.  This paragraph applies only for the purpose of determining
the place of primary use.  The term "customer" does not include (A) a
reseller of mobile telecommunications service, or (B) a serving
carrier under an arrangement to serve the customer outside the home
service provider's licensed service area.
   (3) "Home service provider" means the facilities-based carrier or
reseller with which the customer contracts for the provision of
mobile telecommunications services.
   (4) "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.
   (5) "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.
   (6) "Place of primary use" means the street address representative
of where the customer's use of the mobile telecommunications service
primarily occurs, that must be:
   (A) The residential street address or the primary business street
address of the customer.
   (B) Within the licensed service area of the home service provider.
   (7) (A) "Reseller" means a provider who purchases
telecommunications services from another telecommunications service
provider and then resells the services, or uses the services as a
component part of, or integrates the purchased services into, a
mobile telecommunications service.
   (B) "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.
   (8) "Serving carrier" means a facilities-based carrier providing
mobile telecommunications service to a customer outside a home
service provider's or reseller's licensed area.
   (9) "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.
41021.  Every service supplier shall collect the surcharge from each
service user at the time it collects its billings from the service
user, provided, the duty to collect the surcharge from a service user
shall commence with the beginning of the first regular billing
period applicable to that person which starts on or after the
operative date of the surcharge imposed by this part.  If the
stations or lines of more than one service supplier are utilized in
furnishing the telephone communications services to the service user,
the service supplier that bills the customer shall collect the
surcharge from the customer.
   Only one payment under this part shall be required with respect to
the surcharge on any service, notwithstanding that the lines or
stations of one or more service suppliers are used in furnishing such
service.
41022.  The surcharge required to be collected by the service
supplier shall be added to and stated separately in its billings to
the service user.
41023.  The surcharge required to be collected by the service
supplier, and any amount unreturned to the service user which is not
a surcharge but was collected from the service user as representing a
surcharge, constitute debts owed by the service supplier to this
state.
   A service supplier that has collected any amount of surcharge in
excess of the amount of surcharge imposed by this part and actually
due from a service user, may refund such amount to the service user,
even though such surcharge amount has already been paid over to the
board and no corresponding credit or refund has yet been secured.
Any service supplier making a refund of any charge to a service user
upon which surcharge is collected under this part from the service
user may repay therewith the amount of the surcharge paid.  The
service supplier may claim credit for such overpayment against the
amount of surcharge imposed by this part which is due upon any other
quarterly return, providing such credit is claimed in a return dated
no later than three years from the date of overpayment.
41024.  Every service user in this state is liable for the surcharge
until it has been paid to this state, except that payment to a
service supplier registered under this part is sufficient to relieve
the user from further liability for the tax.
   Any surcharge collected from a service user which has not been
remitted to the board shall be deemed a debt owed to the State of
California by the person required to collect and remit such
surcharge.  Nothing in this part shall impose any obligation upon a
service supplier to take any legal action to enforce the collection
of the utility users surcharge imposed by this part.  The service
supplier shall provide the board with amounts uncollected which total
three dollars ($3) or more on a cumulative basis with respect to a
single service user along with the names, addresses and reasons of
the service users refusing to pay the surcharge imposed by this part.
41025.  If a bill is rendered to persons using intrastate telephone
services the amount on which the surcharge with respect to such
services shall be based shall be the sum of all charges for such
services included in the bill; except that if the person who renders
the bill groups individual items for purposes of rendering the bill
and computing the surcharge then the amount on which the surcharge
with respect to each such group shall be based, shall be the sum of
all items within that group, and the surcharge on the remaining items
not included in any such group, shall be based on the charge for
each item separately.
41026.  In the payment of the surcharge imposed by this part, a
fractional part of a cent shall be disregarded unless it amounts to
one-half or more, in which case it shall be increased to one cent.
41027.  Nothing in this part shall be construed as imposing a
surcharge upon amounts paid by any person when imposition of such
surcharge would be in violation of the Constitution of the United
States, the United States Code, or the laws of the State of
California, nor upon toll charges used in the collection and
dissemination of news for the public press or on charges for wide
area telephone service used by common carriers in the conduct of
their business.