Re: Cost Recovery Surcharge & Va Personal Property Tax Recovery for IP Transit

2020-01-10 Thread Owen DeLong



> On Jan 6, 2020, at 07:53 , Christopher Morrow  wrote:
> 
> On Mon, Jan 6, 2020 at 10:30 AM William Herrin  wrote:
> 
>> If it's not written in to your contract, it's a breach of contract. Either 
>> way it's a deceitfully imposed surcharge, not a state tax. Virginia does not 
>> tax the sale of services like transit and colo. More, the only personal 
>> property tax I've heard of in Virginia is on motor vehicles.
>> 
> 
> also, houses and ( I think ) boats. (personal property tax)

Houses would be “Real Property” tax vs. “Personal Property” tax.

Owen




Re: Cost Recovery Surcharge & Va Personal Property Tax Recovery for IP Transit

2020-01-09 Thread Brandon Martin

On 1/8/20 11:30 AM, William Herrin wrote:

Did this tax change unpredictably, or am I still safe saying it's
deceitful to add a fee for it on top of the advertised and contracted
service price?


IMO, there's no reason to expect this tax to be directly passed on to an 
end customer just like there's no reason to expect the company's income 
tax to be directly passed on to the end customer.  It's a cost of doing 
business and needs to be included in the up-front negotiated rates.


Sales tax is somewhat special in that regard as it occurs right at the 
point of purchase and is, in some areas at least, REQUIRED to be 
itemized to the customer.


If it's not in the contract, I'd try to get out of it.
--
Brandon Martin


Re: Cost Recovery Surcharge & Va Personal Property Tax Recovery for IP Transit

2020-01-08 Thread William Herrin
On Wed, Jan 8, 2020 at 2:58 AM Rob Seastrom  wrote:
> It’s called “business tangible personal property tax”, and it’s technically 
> levied by the counties, not by the state (although authorized by the 
> legislature, as all local government activities must be in a Dillon’s Rule 
> state).
>
> Loudoun’s page on this (chosen at random because I live here... and can see 
> The Cloud’s Cloud from my house) is at 
> https://www.loudoun.gov/1556/Business-Tangible-Personal-Property-Tax


Which when you crunch the numbers works out more or less to the sales
tax they didn't pay when they bought that equipment online. Got it.

Did this tax change unpredictably, or am I still safe saying it's
deceitful to add a fee for it on top of the advertised and contracted
service price?

Regards,
Bill Herrin

-- 
William Herrin
b...@herrin.us
https://bill.herrin.us/


Re: Cost Recovery Surcharge & Va Personal Property Tax Recovery for IP Transit

2020-01-08 Thread Rob Seastrom

>> On Jan 6, 2020, at 10:30, William Herrin  wrote:
> 
>> - Va Personal Property Tax Recovery (1.8%)

> If it's not written in to your contract, it's a breach of contract. Either 
> way it's a deceitfully imposed surcharge, not a state tax. Virginia does not 
> tax the sale of services like transit and colo. More, the only personal 
> property tax I've heard of in Virginia is on motor vehicles.

Hi Bill,

It’s called “business tangible personal property tax”, and it’s technically 
levied by the counties, not by the state (although authorized by the 
legislature, as all local government activities must be in a Dillon’s Rule 
state).

Loudoun’s page on this (chosen at random because I live here... and can see The 
Cloud’s Cloud from my house) is at 
https://www.loudoun.gov/1556/Business-Tangible-Personal-Property-Tax

-r





Re: [E] Re: Cost Recovery Surcharge & Va Personal Property Tax Recovery for IP Transit

2020-01-07 Thread Siyuan Miao
It's in Reston (Fairfax County).

On Wed, Jan 8, 2020 at 12:22 AM Eilers, Laura via NANOG 
wrote:

> If your data center is in Ashburn, which is in Loudoun County, then the
> servers inside are considered personal property and are taxed as such. They
> explain it in the latter part of the article.
>
>
> https://datacenterfrontier.com/the-data-center-dividend-tax-revenue-surges-in-loudoun-county/
>
>
> Laura
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> On Mon, Jan 6, 2020 at 2:19 PM Matthew Petach 
> wrote:
>
>>
>>
>> On Mon, Jan 6, 2020 at 10:17 AM Tom Beecher  wrote:
>>
>>> Both are quite likely to be negotiable.
>>>
>>> FCC Cost Recovery fees are the federally mandated ones they are allowed
>>> to pass on to you. Most anything else named 'Cost Recovery' is optional,
>>> and so named to try and confuse you into thinking it's the mandatory stuff.
>>>
>>
>>
>> The person getting charged FCC Cost Recovery was in Canada, however.
>>
>> Good to know the US annexed Canada and brought it under the jurisdiction
>> of the FCC recently... ^_^;
>>
>> Matt
>>
>>


Re: [E] Re: Cost Recovery Surcharge & Va Personal Property Tax Recovery for IP Transit

2020-01-07 Thread Eilers, Laura via NANOG
If your data center is in Ashburn, which is in Loudoun County, then the
servers inside are considered personal property and are taxed as such. They
explain it in the latter part of the article.

https://datacenterfrontier.com/the-data-center-dividend-tax-revenue-surges-in-loudoun-county/


Laura







On Mon, Jan 6, 2020 at 2:19 PM Matthew Petach  wrote:

>
>
> On Mon, Jan 6, 2020 at 10:17 AM Tom Beecher  wrote:
>
>> Both are quite likely to be negotiable.
>>
>> FCC Cost Recovery fees are the federally mandated ones they are allowed
>> to pass on to you. Most anything else named 'Cost Recovery' is optional,
>> and so named to try and confuse you into thinking it's the mandatory stuff.
>>
>
>
> The person getting charged FCC Cost Recovery was in Canada, however.
>
> Good to know the US annexed Canada and brought it under the jurisdiction
> of the FCC recently... ^_^;
>
> Matt
>
>


Re: Cost Recovery Surcharge & Va Personal Property Tax Recovery for IP Transit

2020-01-06 Thread Matthew Petach
On Mon, Jan 6, 2020 at 10:17 AM Tom Beecher  wrote:

> Both are quite likely to be negotiable.
>
> FCC Cost Recovery fees are the federally mandated ones they are allowed to
> pass on to you. Most anything else named 'Cost Recovery' is optional, and
> so named to try and confuse you into thinking it's the mandatory stuff.
>


The person getting charged FCC Cost Recovery was in Canada, however.

Good to know the US annexed Canada and brought it under the jurisdiction
of the FCC recently... ^_^;

Matt


Re: Cost Recovery Surcharge & Va Personal Property Tax Recovery for IP Transit

2020-01-06 Thread Seth Mattinen

On 1/6/20 9:21 AM, Tom Beecher wrote:
"Property Tax Recovery" charges are also to my knowledge 100% optional 
fees. It's the carrier charging you a fee so they can pay their property 
taxes. Somehow, this sort of thing is legal.



I mean, it's legal if someone signed an agreement that says they are 
agreeing to pay such things.


Re: Cost Recovery Surcharge & Va Personal Property Tax Recovery for IP Transit

2020-01-06 Thread Tom Beecher
Both are quite likely to be negotiable.

FCC Cost Recovery fees are the federally mandated ones they are allowed to
pass on to you. Most anything else named 'Cost Recovery' is optional, and
so named to try and confuse you into thinking it's the mandatory stuff.

"Property Tax Recovery" charges are also to my knowledge 100% optional
fees. It's the carrier charging you a fee so they can pay their property
taxes. Somehow, this sort of thing is legal.

On Mon, Jan 6, 2020 at 9:42 AM Siyuan Miao  wrote:

> NANOG,
>
> We've recently signed contract of colocation + IP transit with a local
> provider in Northern Virginia.
>
> Co-location services is okay but we found something unusual on our IP
> transit invoices.
>
> - Va Personal Property Tax Recovery (1.8%)
>
> - Cost Recovery Surcharge (3%)?
>
> We've talked with our providers but they told us:
>
> > we use a tax engine that provides the taxes/rates to our services. If
> you would like further language on them, please let me know and I will have
> some one send that over.
>
> Has anyone else ran into this? If this is a legit "surcharge"?
> Also, IP transit isn't a property, why is there a "Property Tax" for IP
> transit?
>
> Regards,
> Siyuan Miao
>


Re: Cost Recovery Surcharge & Va Personal Property Tax Recovery for IP Transit

2020-01-06 Thread Siyuan Miao
Tried again and failed again. Perhaps it's time to go to CoreSite directly
and cancel the contract.

> Cost Recovery Surcharge (CRS) is to recover costs charged to 
by the infrastructure providers to comply with government regulatory
requirements and proceedings, including costs associated with
administration and support, compliance and reporting obligations. This also
includes additional charges for Federal Regulatory Fees to recover direct
and indirect costs associated with government programs including regulatory
fees and expenses assessed by the FCC, such as fees to fund
telecommunications services for the speech and hearing-impaired, North
American Numbering Plan administration, FCC Regulatory Assessment and other
regulatory fees. The CRS rate is 3.0%. VA Property Tax Recovery (PTR) helps
to recover costs assessed on network facilities operators and related
charges incurred from our underlying carriers, including government
property tax assessments, franchise fees, right-of-way fee costs, network
security and infrastructure management. The PTR rate is 1.8%.

Thanks guys for helping us figure this out.

On Mon, Jan 6, 2020 at 11:56 PM Siyuan Miao  wrote:

> I've checked my contract and there's a line:
>
> > If ’s costs to provide services to Customer increase due to
> reasons beyond ’s control, including annual escalations imposed
> by facility providers (often referred to as “Facility Cost Recovery
> Surcharges”),  has the right to increase the fees paid by
> Customer to cover such costs.
>
> > If any local, state, national, international, public or quasi-public
> governmental entity or foreign government or its political subdivision
> imposes any taxes (excluding taxes based on ’s net income or
> capital or any property taxes), fees, surcharges, or other charges or
> impositions on  as a result of ’s sale of Services or
> Customer’s use of Services, Customer shall pay any such impositions
> (“Additional Charges”) and indemnify  from any liability or
> expense associated with the Additional Charges. Taxes that arise in any
> jurisdiction, including, without limitation, value added, consumption,
> sales, use, excise, access, bypass, franchise, or other taxes, fees,
> duties, charges or surcharges, however designated, imposed on, incident to,
> or based upon the provision, sale or use of the Service.
>
> Though, I don't think it's okay to pay CRS and property tax for IPT
> service.
> Will try to negotiate with them again.
>
> Honestly, it's my first time to see these BS. We never have any similar
> issues with other providers.
>
> On Mon, Jan 6, 2020 at 11:29 PM William Herrin  wrote:
>
>>
>>
>> On Mon, Jan 6, 2020 at 6:40 AM Siyuan Miao  wrote:
>>
>>> NANOG,
>>>
>>> We've recently signed contract of colocation + IP transit with a local
>>> provider in Northern Virginia.
>>>
>>> Co-location services is okay but we found something unusual on our IP
>>> transit invoices.
>>>
>>> - Va Personal Property Tax Recovery (1.8%)
>>>
>>> - Cost Recovery Surcharge (3%)?
>>>
>>> We've talked with our providers but they told us:
>>>
>>> > we use a tax engine that provides the taxes/rates to our services. If
>>> you would like further language on them, please let me know and I will have
>>> some one send that over.
>>>
>>> Has anyone else ran into this? If this is a legit "surcharge"?
>>> Also, IP transit isn't a property, why is there a "Property Tax" for IP
>>> transit?
>>>
>>
>> Hi Siyuan,
>>
>> If it's not written in to your contract, it's a breach of contract.
>> Either way it's a deceitfully imposed surcharge, not a state tax. Virginia
>> does not tax the sale of services like transit and colo. More, the only
>> personal property tax I've heard of in Virginia is on motor vehicles.
>>
>> Regards,
>> Bill Herrin
>>
>> --
>> William Herrin
>> b...@herrin.us
>> <https://bill.herrin.us/>
>> https://bill.herrin.us/
>>
>


Re: Cost Recovery Surcharge & Va Personal Property Tax Recovery for IP Transit

2020-01-06 Thread Warren Kumari
On Mon, Jan 6, 2020 at 10:54 AM Christopher Morrow
 wrote:
>
> On Mon, Jan 6, 2020 at 10:30 AM William Herrin  wrote:
>
> > If it's not written in to your contract, it's a breach of contract. Either 
> > way it's a deceitfully imposed surcharge, not a state tax. Virginia does 
> > not tax the sale of services like transit and colo. More, the only personal 
> > property tax I've heard of in Virginia is on motor vehicles.
> >
>
> also, houses and ( I think ) boats. (personal property tax)
>

and mobile homes, and aircraft... oh, and, surprisingly, Flight
Simulators (a rate of $0.01 per $100 of assessed value). I guess that
this means that if I buy a joystick from amazon for $19.99 I owe the
country 0.002c...


> I could imagine this is: "Hey, have our customers pay our
> realty/property taxes for us!" plan... or that perhaps they are
> 'leasing you ground space" and passing on the %-age of their total
> space's tax footprint to you.
>
> not saying either of those sounds terrific though :)


Yup - this sounds like the "We will charge you a modem rental fee,
even if you don't, you know, actually rent a modem..." (like
https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2019/07/frontier-customer-bought-his-own-router-but-has-to-pay-10-rental-fee-anyway/)

Warren "Waitin' for the servicefinder.se spam" Kumari.



--
I don't think the execution is relevant when it was obviously a bad
idea in the first place.
This is like putting rabid weasels in your pants, and later expressing
regret at having chosen those particular rabid weasels and that pair
of pants.
   ---maf


Re: Cost Recovery Surcharge & Va Personal Property Tax Recovery for IP Transit

2020-01-06 Thread Eric Dugas
Had a similar issue where a provider would slap a ~10% "FCC Regulatory 
Surcharge" (not specified in the contract) on IP transit delivered in Canada. 
We spent multiple hours trying to resolve the issues. I ended up by de-peering 
from the three letter name company. They were the only one doing this (out of 
six Tier1 providers available in the city).

I don't care about paying regulatory stuff. In some places, it's part of the 
game. I just need my providers to be transparent. If you're selling a full 10G 
of IP transit at $0.40/Mbps, I expect to receive an invoice for $4000+tx a 
month, not $4400+tx a month.
Eric
On Jan 6 2020, at 10:56 am, Siyuan Miao  wrote:
> I've checked my contract and there's a line:
>
> > If ’s costs to provide services to Customer increase due to 
> > reasons beyond ’s control, including annual escalations imposed 
> > by facility providers (often referred to as “Facility Cost Recovery 
> > Surcharges”),  has the right to increase the fees paid by 
> > Customer to cover such costs.
> > If any local, state, national, international, public or quasi-public 
> > governmental entity or foreign government or its political subdivision 
> > imposes any taxes (excluding taxes based on ’s net income or 
> > capital or any property taxes), fees, surcharges, or other charges or 
> > impositions on  as a result of ’s sale of Services or 
> > Customer’s use of Services, Customer shall pay any such impositions 
> > (“Additional Charges”) and indemnify  from any liability or 
> > expense associated with the Additional Charges. Taxes that arise in any 
> > jurisdiction, including, without limitation, value added, consumption, 
> > sales, use, excise, access, bypass, franchise, or other taxes, fees, 
> > duties, charges or surcharges, however designated, imposed on, incident to, 
> > or based upon the provision, sale or use of the Service.
>
> Though, I don't think it's okay to pay CRS and property tax for IPT service.
> Will try to negotiate with them again.
>
> Honestly, it's my first time to see these BS. We never have any similar 
> issues with other providers.
> On Mon, Jan 6, 2020 at 11:29 PM William Herrin  (mailto:b...@herrin.us)> wrote:
> >
> >
> > On Mon, Jan 6, 2020 at 6:40 AM Siyuan Miao  > (mailto:avel...@misaka.io)> wrote:
> > > NANOG,
> > >
> > > We've recently signed contract of colocation + IP transit with a local 
> > > provider in Northern Virginia.
> > > Co-location services is okay but we found something unusual on our IP 
> > > transit invoices.
> > > - Va Personal Property Tax Recovery (1.8%)
> > > - Cost Recovery Surcharge (3%)?
> > > We've talked with our providers but they told us:
> > > > we use a tax engine that provides the taxes/rates to our services. If 
> > > > you would like further language on them, please let me know and I will 
> > > > have some one send that over.
> > > Has anyone else ran into this? If this is a legit "surcharge"?
> > > Also, IP transit isn't a property, why is there a "Property Tax" for IP 
> > > transit?
> > >
> >
> >
> > Hi Siyuan,
> >
> > If it's not written in to your contract, it's a breach of contract. Either 
> > way it's a deceitfully imposed surcharge, not a state tax. Virginia does 
> > not tax the sale of services like transit and colo. More, the only personal 
> > property tax I've heard of in Virginia is on motor vehicles.
> > Regards,
> > Bill Herrin
> >
> > --
> > William Herrin
> > b...@herrin.us (mailto:b...@herrin.us)
> >
> > https://bill.herrin.us/
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
>
>
>



Re: Cost Recovery Surcharge & Va Personal Property Tax Recovery for IP Transit

2020-01-06 Thread Siyuan Miao
I've checked my contract and there's a line:

> If ’s costs to provide services to Customer increase due to
reasons beyond ’s control, including annual escalations imposed
by facility providers (often referred to as “Facility Cost Recovery
Surcharges”),  has the right to increase the fees paid by
Customer to cover such costs.

> If any local, state, national, international, public or quasi-public
governmental entity or foreign government or its political subdivision
imposes any taxes (excluding taxes based on ’s net income or
capital or any property taxes), fees, surcharges, or other charges or
impositions on  as a result of ’s sale of Services or
Customer’s use of Services, Customer shall pay any such impositions
(“Additional Charges”) and indemnify  from any liability or
expense associated with the Additional Charges. Taxes that arise in any
jurisdiction, including, without limitation, value added, consumption,
sales, use, excise, access, bypass, franchise, or other taxes, fees,
duties, charges or surcharges, however designated, imposed on, incident to,
or based upon the provision, sale or use of the Service.

Though, I don't think it's okay to pay CRS and property tax for IPT service.
Will try to negotiate with them again.

Honestly, it's my first time to see these BS. We never have any similar
issues with other providers.

On Mon, Jan 6, 2020 at 11:29 PM William Herrin  wrote:

>
>
> On Mon, Jan 6, 2020 at 6:40 AM Siyuan Miao  wrote:
>
>> NANOG,
>>
>> We've recently signed contract of colocation + IP transit with a local
>> provider in Northern Virginia.
>>
>> Co-location services is okay but we found something unusual on our IP
>> transit invoices.
>>
>> - Va Personal Property Tax Recovery (1.8%)
>>
>> - Cost Recovery Surcharge (3%)?
>>
>> We've talked with our providers but they told us:
>>
>> > we use a tax engine that provides the taxes/rates to our services. If
>> you would like further language on them, please let me know and I will have
>> some one send that over.
>>
>> Has anyone else ran into this? If this is a legit "surcharge"?
>> Also, IP transit isn't a property, why is there a "Property Tax" for IP
>> transit?
>>
>
> Hi Siyuan,
>
> If it's not written in to your contract, it's a breach of contract. Either
> way it's a deceitfully imposed surcharge, not a state tax. Virginia does
> not tax the sale of services like transit and colo. More, the only personal
> property tax I've heard of in Virginia is on motor vehicles.
>
> Regards,
> Bill Herrin
>
> --
> William Herrin
> b...@herrin.us
> <https://bill.herrin.us/>
> https://bill.herrin.us/
>


Re: Cost Recovery Surcharge & Va Personal Property Tax Recovery for IP Transit

2020-01-06 Thread Christopher Morrow
On Mon, Jan 6, 2020 at 10:30 AM William Herrin  wrote:

> If it's not written in to your contract, it's a breach of contract. Either 
> way it's a deceitfully imposed surcharge, not a state tax. Virginia does not 
> tax the sale of services like transit and colo. More, the only personal 
> property tax I've heard of in Virginia is on motor vehicles.
>

also, houses and ( I think ) boats. (personal property tax)

I could imagine this is: "Hey, have our customers pay our
realty/property taxes for us!" plan... or that perhaps they are
'leasing you ground space" and passing on the %-age of their total
space's tax footprint to you.

not saying either of those sounds terrific though :)


Re: Cost Recovery Surcharge & Va Personal Property Tax Recovery for IP Transit

2020-01-06 Thread William Herrin
On Mon, Jan 6, 2020 at 6:40 AM Siyuan Miao  wrote:

> NANOG,
>
> We've recently signed contract of colocation + IP transit with a local
> provider in Northern Virginia.
>
> Co-location services is okay but we found something unusual on our IP
> transit invoices.
>
> - Va Personal Property Tax Recovery (1.8%)
>
> - Cost Recovery Surcharge (3%)?
>
> We've talked with our providers but they told us:
>
> > we use a tax engine that provides the taxes/rates to our services. If
> you would like further language on them, please let me know and I will have
> some one send that over.
>
> Has anyone else ran into this? If this is a legit "surcharge"?
> Also, IP transit isn't a property, why is there a "Property Tax" for IP
> transit?
>

Hi Siyuan,

If it's not written in to your contract, it's a breach of contract. Either
way it's a deceitfully imposed surcharge, not a state tax. Virginia does
not tax the sale of services like transit and colo. More, the only personal
property tax I've heard of in Virginia is on motor vehicles.

Regards,
Bill Herrin

-- 
William Herrin
b...@herrin.us
<https://bill.herrin.us/>
https://bill.herrin.us/


Re: Cost Recovery Surcharge & Va Personal Property Tax Recovery for IP Transit

2020-01-06 Thread Clayton Zekelman



It seems to me the cable companies started this long ago to account 
for various local taxes being levied upon them in different 
jurisdictions.  They figured "why should someone in this county make 
us less money than someone in another county", so they leveled the 
field by breaking the taxes out.


It seems to have worked so well, that they just started off loading 
anything they could find in to below the line pricing.  We're seeing 
this more and more.  The company that hauls our office trash away has 
decided to put an "environmental surcharge" and "fuel surcharge" on 
our bills.  It's all spelled out in the contract fine print, but it 
seems to me that the $43.00 per trip surcharge is enough diesel to go 
back and forth 10 times between our location and the transfer station...



At 09:46 AM 06/01/2020, Brandon Martin wrote:

On 1/6/20 9:39 AM, Siyuan Miao wrote:

- Va Personal Property Tax Recovery (1.8%)
- Cost Recovery Surcharge (3%)?


These sound like your typical BS "authorized fees" many carriers at 
all levels love to levy.  They're basically attempting to itemize 
various regulatory (i.e. regulations they have to comply with just 
like any business would) overhead and pass it on to you 
directly.  Cable companies and incumbent telecoms love to do this 
since it's a way to make more money without raising base rates that 
they actually have to quote to people.


They were probably described deep in the bowels of your 
contract.  If not...you might be able to get out of them.

--
Brandon Martin


--

Clayton Zekelman
Managed Network Systems Inc. (MNSi)
3363 Tecumseh Rd. E
Windsor, Ontario
N8W 1H4

tel. 519-985-8410
fax. 519-985-8409



Re: Cost Recovery Surcharge & Va Personal Property Tax Recovery for IP Transit

2020-01-06 Thread Brandon Martin

On 1/6/20 9:39 AM, Siyuan Miao wrote:

- Va Personal Property Tax Recovery (1.8%)
- Cost Recovery Surcharge (3%)?


These sound like your typical BS "authorized fees" many carriers at all 
levels love to levy.  They're basically attempting to itemize various 
regulatory (i.e. regulations they have to comply with just like any 
business would) overhead and pass it on to you directly.  Cable 
companies and incumbent telecoms love to do this since it's a way to 
make more money without raising base rates that they actually have to 
quote to people.


They were probably described deep in the bowels of your contract.  If 
not...you might be able to get out of them.

--
Brandon Martin


Cost Recovery Surcharge & Va Personal Property Tax Recovery for IP Transit

2020-01-06 Thread Siyuan Miao
NANOG,

We've recently signed contract of colocation + IP transit with a local
provider in Northern Virginia.

Co-location services is okay but we found something unusual on our IP
transit invoices.

- Va Personal Property Tax Recovery (1.8%)

- Cost Recovery Surcharge (3%)?

We've talked with our providers but they told us:

> we use a tax engine that provides the taxes/rates to our services. If you
would like further language on them, please let me know and I will have
some one send that over.

Has anyone else ran into this? If this is a legit "surcharge"?
Also, IP transit isn't a property, why is there a "Property Tax" for IP
transit?

Regards,
Siyuan Miao