On 7/28/2013 2:20 PM, Jeremy wrote:
So while I am de minimus should I not be charging a USF fee? You stated that I cannot charge more than I pass along but if I pass along nothing until I am at the 10K mark then am I not supposed to bill it until that point?
Carlos has good advice -- consult a lawyer. (I'm not a lawyer but I play an engineer on TV.) I just checked with one who could not render actual "advice". Rather, he explained, "This is one of the mysteries of USF."
The FCC forgot about this case when they did the rules. So the usual practice seems to be to collect the fees. You might after all be passing them along to your wholesale provider, who is charging USF to you. But if you do go over the $10k limit, then you could owe retroactively, and in that case you want the money in the bank! So unless they've clarified this in the instructions on the Form 499s (be warned; they do that sometimes, and you don't know the rule until you read the new fine print), you can pass along the fee you would be collecting under safe harbor, and apply it to the USF charges you're being hit with.
I don't think these crazy fees are a reason to avoid voice services, but they are a pain to administer. The FCC is terrible about writing clear rules.
On Sun, Jul 28, 2013 at 9:42 AM, Fred Goldstein <fgoldst...@ionary.com <mailto:fgoldst...@ionary.com>> wrote:On 7/28/2013 12:46 AM, Jeremy wrote:From what I read it seems like you can collect whatever you want directly from your customers but it may be considered as income and taxed as such. So you can't really pass it on as a direct fee and bypass your income tax liability for it.No. Federal billing rules say that you cannot collect more on your retail bill for FUSF than you pass along. No markups allowed. Most of the other charges can also be passed along one for one, but state rules could vary. But the rate is not exactly what you think. The Federal USF rate is calculated as a percentage, changed quarterly (it has gone over 17%), of your interstate telecommunications service billing. If you are providing local telephone service, that line item is not subject to USF as it is intrastate, not intersate. Internet access is not subject to USF as it is information service, not telecommunications service. The tax was meant to apply to long distance calls, which were a lot of money back in the day. If you are (as is the norm nowadays) providing a service that does not charge explicitly for interstate long distance, then you have two options. There is a "safe harbor" of 64.9%, wherein that percentage of the total phone package is deemed interstate. So if you sold it for $10/month, the tax would be applied to $6.49 of it. This number was computed back when VoIP services were primarily used as cheap dial-around long distance, not as primary lines, so the "PIU" (percentage interstate use -- this number comes up a LOT in telecom billing) was high. You can also compute what percentage of your calls are actually interstate, and pay USF on that percentage of the bill. This involves filling out the Form 499-Q's correctly, but it is the norm nowadays. Bear in mind that there is a "de minimis" rule. If you would owe less than $10k/year, then you only file Form 499-A (annual, vs. quarterly), and don't pay anything. BUT you then are treated as a retail customer of your wholesale provider(s), and *they* collect USF on what they bill you. If you are no de minimis, and do actually pay USF, then you tell that to your providers, who have to verify it against FCC records, and then they don't charge you USF. It's sort of like a retailer's exemption on sales tax; it's only collected once. Note that this whole system is on the docket at the FCC and they're still thinking about how to revise it, but don't seem to have a consensus, so they're just putting it off.On Sat, Jul 27, 2013 at 10:26 PM, Chris Fabien <ch...@lakenetmi.com <mailto:ch...@lakenetmi.com>> wrote: That looks about right, it varies by state/locality of course. We collect Federal USF, State use tax, state and county E911. The USF you get to pocket until your required contributions are $10k/year - under that you are considered "de minimus" and just have to file the annual form. When we set up our billing the Telecom Relay Fund passed under our radar so now we're just paying for that out of pocket. I'm not sure if you are allowed to collect that specifically from your customers as well. On Sun, Jul 28, 2013 at 12:20 AM, Jeremy <jeremysmi...@gmail.com <mailto:jeremysmi...@gmail.com>> wrote: I am attempting to figure out all of the taxes for VoiP and the main thing that has me confused is the Universal Service Fund. It seems that my state (Utah) has a USF of 0.45% http://www.psc.state.ut.us/utilities/telecom/documents/Rule%20746-360%20amendment.rtf Then it also seems like the Feds want 15.1%?? That is huge! http://www.fcc.gov/encyclopedia/contribution-factor-quarterly-filings-universal-service-fund-usf-management-support Then there is sales and use tax of *State Sales & Use -* 4.7% *Municipality Sales & Use - *varies - see http://tax.utah.gov/salestax/rate/13q3combined.pdf Then we have E911: *E911 State -* .08 *E911 County -* .61 *Poison Control -* .07 *-------------------------------* *Total for E911 -* .76 Then, since October 2011 we are also liable for the *Telecommunications Relay Fund* - .06 http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/FCC-11-150A1.pdf _______________________________________________ Wireless mailing list Wireless@wispa.org <mailto:Wireless@wispa.org> http://lists.wispa.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless _______________________________________________ Wireless mailing list Wireless@wispa.org <mailto:Wireless@wispa.org> http://lists.wispa.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless _______________________________________________ Wireless mailing list Wireless@wispa.org <mailto:Wireless@wispa.org> http://lists.wispa.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless-- Fred R. 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