"Interstate telecommunications" means all telecommunications
that either originate or terminate outside this State.
"Intrastate telecommunications" means all telecommunications
that originate and terminate within this State.
"Person" means any natural individual, firm, trust, estate,
partnership, association, joint stock company, joint venture,
corporation, limited liability company, or a receiver, trustee,
guardian, or other representative appointed by order of any court, the
Federal and State governments, including State universities created by
statute, or any city, town, county, or other political subdivision of
this State.
"Purchase at retail" means the acquisition, consumption or
use of telecommunications through a sale at retail.
"Retailer" means and includes every person engaged in the
business of making sales at retail as defined in this Section.
The Department may, in
its discretion, upon application, authorize the collection of the tax
hereby imposed by any retailer not maintaining a place of business within
this State, who, to the satisfaction of the Department, furnishes adequate
security to insure collection and payment of the tax. Such retailer shall
be issued, without charge, a permit to collect such tax. When so
authorized, it shall be the duty of such retailer to collect the tax upon
all of the gross charges for telecommunications in this State in the same
manner and subject to the same requirements as a retailer maintaining a
place of business within this State. The permit may be revoked by the
Department at its discretion.
"Retailer maintaining a place of business in this State", or any
like term, means and includes any retailer having or maintaining within
this State, directly or by a subsidiary, an office, distribution
facilities, transmission facilities, sales office, warehouse or other place
of business, or any agent or other representative operating within this
State under the authority of the retailer or its subsidiary, irrespective
of whether such place of business or agent or other representative is
located here permanently or temporarily, or whether such retailer or
subsidiary is licensed to do business in this State.
"Sale at retail" means the transmitting, supplying or
furnishing of telecommunications and all services and equipment provided in
connection therewith for a consideration, to persons other than the
Federal and State governments, and State universities created by
statute and other than between a parent corporation and its wholly
owned subsidiaries or between wholly owned subsidiaries
for their use or consumption and not for resale.
"Service address" means the location of telecommunications
equipment from which telecommunications services are originated or at
which telecommunications services are received by a taxpayer. In the event
this may not be a defined location, as in the case of mobile phones, paging
systems, and maritime systems,
service address means the customer's place of primary use as defined in the
Mobile Telecommunications Sourcing Conformity Act. For
air-to-ground systems and the like,
"service address" shall mean the location of a taxpayer's primary use
of the telecommunications equipment as defined by telephone number,
authorization code, or location in Illinois where bills are sent.
"Taxpayer" means a person who individually or through his or her
agents, employees, or permittees engages in the act or privilege of
originating or receiving telecommunications in a municipality and who incurs a
tax liability as authorized by this Act.
"Telecommunications", in addition to the meaning ordinarily
and popularly ascribed to it, includes, without limitation, messages or
information transmitted through use of local, toll, and wide area
telephone service, private line services, channel services, telegraph
services, teletypewriter, computer exchange services, cellular
mobile telecommunications service, specialized mobile radio,
stationary two-way radio, paging service, or any other form of mobile
and portable one-way or two-way communications, or any other
transmission of messages or information by electronic or similar
means, between or among points by wire, cable, fiber optics, laser,
microwave, radio, satellite, or similar facilities. As used in this
Act, "private line" means a dedicated non-traffic sensitive
service for a single customer, that entitles the customer to exclusive
or priority use of a communications channel or group of channels, from
one or more specified locations to one or more other specified
locations. The definition of "telecommunications" shall not include
value added services in which computer processing applications are
used to act on the form, content, code, and protocol of the information
for purposes other than transmission. "Telecommunications" shall not
include purchases of telecommunications by a telecommunications service
provider for use as a component part of the service provided by such provider
to the ultimate retail consumer who originates or terminates the taxable
end-to-end communications. Carrier access charges, right of access
charges, charges for use of inter-company facilities, and all
telecommunications resold in the subsequent provision of, used as a
component of, or integrated into, end-to-end telecommunications
service shall be non-taxable as sales for resale. Prepaid telephone
calling arrangements shall not be considered "telecommunications"
subject to the tax imposed under this Act. For purposes of this Section,
"prepaid telephone calling arrangements" means that term as defined in
Section 2-27 of the Retailers' Occupation Tax Act.
(Source: P.A. 102-1125, eff. 2-3-23.)
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