HomeMy WebLinkAbout4504 ORDINANCE "-/',~(~ 5/
AN ORDINANCE relating to occupation tax for cellular telephone service
companies, and amending Chapter 5.02 of the Bremerton Municipal Code.
THE CITY OF BREMERTON DOES HEREBY ORDAIN:
Section 1. Amendment. Section 5.02.070 of the Bremerton Municipal Code is
amended to read as follows:
5.02.070 OCCUPATION TAX - RATES - WHO MUST PAY - UTILITIES. There
is hereby levied upon and there shall be collected from every person as hereinafter provided
for the act or privilege of engaging in business activities within the City, whether his office
or place of business be within and/or without the City, an occupation tax, sometimes herein
referred to as the "tax",in amounts to be determined by application of the rates given
against the value of products, including byproducts, gross proceeds of sales or gross income
of the business, as the case may be, as follows:
(k) Upon every person, firm or corporation engaged in carrying on a telephone
business for hire or for sale of a commodity or a service within or partly within the
corporate limits of the City, a tax for the privilege of so doing business, as defined in this
section:
(1) Upon telephone business, there shall be levied a tax equal to six ~
percent (6%) of the total gross income rendered within the City. r,_ ......... : ............
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(2) "Telephone business" means the business of providing access to a local
telephone network, local telephone network switching service, toll service, o~ coin telephone
services, video communicating data communication, or providing communication
transmission for hire, via a local telephone network, toll line or channel, or telephone
accessed paging network, cellular -~ ..... ' ..... ~-
v ................ telephone service or similar
communication or transmission system. It includes cooperative or farmer line telephone
companies or associations operating an exchange. "Telephone business" does not include
the providing of competitive telephone service, nor the providing of cable television service,
nor the providing of broadcast services by radio or television stations.
i. "Cellular Telephone Service" means a two-way voice and data
telephone/telecommunications system based in whole or substantially in part on wireless
radio communications and which is not subject to regulation by the Washington Utilities and
Transportation Commission (WUTC). This includes cellular mobile service. The definition
of cellular mobile service includes other wireless radio communications services such az
specialized mobile radio (SMR), personal communications services (PCS), and any other
evolving wireless radio communications technology which accomplishes a purpose similar
to cellular mobile service.
(3) "Competitive telephone service" means the providing by any person of
telephone equipment, or apparatus, directory advertising and lease of telephone street
directories, or service, other than toll service, related to that equipment or apparatus such
as repair or maintenance service, if the equipment or apparatus is of a type which may be
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provided by persons not subject to regulation as telephone companies under Title 80 RCW,
and for which a separate charge is made.
(4) "Deductions." In computing the telephone tax, there shall be deducted
from the gross operating revenues the following items:
i. Amounts derived from transactions in interstate or foreign commerce
or from any business which the City is prohibited from taxing under the Constitutions of the
United States or the State of Washington.
ii. Amounts derived from that portion of network telephone service, as
defined in RCW 82.04.065, which represents charges to another telecommunications
company, as defined in RCW 80.04.010,for connecting fees, switching charges or carrier
access charges relating to intrastate toll telephone services, or for access to, or charges for,
interstate services or charges for network telephone service that is purchased for the purpose
of resale.
iii. Adjustments made to a billing or to a customer account or to a
telecommunications company accrual account in order to reverse a billing or charge that had
been made as a result of third-party fraud or other crime and was not properly a debt of a
customer.
iv. A deduction from gross income shall be allowed, only to cellular
telephone service companies which keep their regular books of account on an accrual basis
for cash discounts and credit losses actually sustained by a taxpayer as a result of telephone
service business which shall be phased in as follows: twenty percent (20%) of the credit
losses occurring in 1995; forty percent (40%) of the credit losses occurring in 1996; sixty
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percent (60%) of the credit losses occurring in 1997; eighty percent (80%) of the credit
losses occurring in 1998; and a complete deduction for the credit losses occurring in 1999
and thereafter.
(6) Allocation of Income - Cellular Telephone Service.
i. Service address: Payments by a customer for the telephone service
from telephones without a fixed location shall be allocated among taxing jurisdictions to th~
location of the customer's principal service address during the period for which the tax
applies.
ii. Roaming phones: When the service is provided while a subscriber
is roaming outside the subscriber's normal cellular network area, the gross income shall be
assigned consistent with the taxpayer's accounting system to the location of the originating
cell site of the call, or to the location of the main cellular switching office that switched the
call..
Section 2. Amendment. Section 5.02.130 of the Bremerton Municipal Code is
amended to read as follows:
5.02.130 OCCUPATION TAX - DEDUCTIONS. In computing the occupation tax,
there may be deducted from the measure of tax the following items:
(d) The amount of credit losses actually sustained by taxpayers whose regular books
of account are kept upon an accrual basis, except those who are taxed under the provisions
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of BMC 5.02.070(j)- (p); Provided, however, That cellular telephone service shall be allowed
such credit losses as permitted under BMC 5.02.070(k)(4)iv;
Section 3. Effective Date. This ordinance shall become effective ten (10) days from
passage and publication.
APPROVED by the City Council of the City of Bremerton this ~ day of
PASSED by the City Council of the City of Bremerton this~oe~ d day of
~_~_/.,-4 x~:~zl~, 1995.
SHERRIL HUFF~lqEES,~ Council President
APPROVED this ~5~ day of~x , 1995.
HORTON, Mayor
ATTEST:
I~A"TH~EN iP_.~,_~-~
McCLUSKE~, City Clerk
EFFECTIVE DATE
PUBLICATION DATE
ORDINANCE NUMBER 2/,.5n ~ ....
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