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Business Taxes Law Guide—Revision 2024
Local Prepaid Mobile Telephony Services Collection Act
Revenue and Taxation Code
Division 2. Other Taxes
Part 21.1. Local Prepaid Mobile Telephony Services Collection Act
Section 42100
42100. Title; Legislative findings and declarations. (a) This part shall be known and may be cited as the Local Prepaid Mobile Telephony Services Collection Act.
(b) The Legislature finds and declares all of the following:
(1) Maintaining effective and efficient communications services, 911 emergency systems, communications-related public policy programs to promote universal service, and various local programs across the state benefit all persons with access to the telecommunications system.
(2) Providers of end-use communications services, including providers of mobile voice telecommunications services, which the Federal Communications Commission terms mobile telephony service, are required to collect and remit utility users taxes and local 911 or access charges (local charges) imposed by over 150 cities and counties in California on end-users of such mobile telephony services, as required by existing state or local law.
(3) Local charges on telecommunication services represent an important source of tax revenue for many cities and counties and are used to pay for such essential governmental services as public safety, streets, parks, libraries, senior centers, and many more.
(4) Prepaid mobile telephony services are an important and growing segment of the communications industry. Prepaid mobile telephony services, unlike postpaid mobile telephony services, are frequently sold by a third-party seller that is not the provider of mobile telephony services, and collecting local charges from prepaid consumers of mobile telephony services at the time of the retail transaction is necessary and the most efficient and competitively neutral means for the collection of those local charges.
(5) The collection of prepaid mobile telephony services by third-party sellers and the remittance of those local charges to the department involves administrative costs and responsibilities that are unique to prepaid mobile telephony services, and therefore justify unique reimbursement and tax rate simplification measures, which are fair and reasonable.
(c) It is a matter of statewide concern that the local charges for local prepaid mobile telephony services be collected in a uniform manner in order for the collection to be fair and uniform on a statewide basis.
(d) It is the intention of the Legislature that this part shall preempt the provisions pertaining to the tax or charge rate, base, and method of collection contained in all local ordinances, rules, or regulations concerning the imposition of a local charge upon the consumption of prepaid mobile telephony services to the extent those provisions are inconsistent with the provisions of this part. It is not the intent of the Legislature to otherwise preempt, limit, or affect the general authority of local jurisdictions to impose a utility user tax, local 911 charge, or any other local charges.
History—Added by Stats. 2014, Ch. 885 (AB 1717), in effect September 30, 2014. Stats. 2020, Ch. 179 (SB 1441), in effect January 1, 2021, replaced "board" with "department" in paragraph (5) of subdivision (b); deleted "and Part 21 (commencing with Section 42001)" from end of first sentence in subdivision (d).