[asterisk-biz] Federal and State Surcharges and Taxes

[Trixter aka Bret McDanel]

On Wed, 2008-08-06 at 02:01 -0400, VIP Carrier wrote:
> Can some one share with me an information about Federal and State
> Surcharges and Taxes in New York.
> I would like to know what % and for what? 


Federal may or may not apply, the USF contributions (which change every
quarter) are only for "interconnected voip providers" as defined by
statute.

http://www.fcc.gov/omd/contribution-factor.html
Proposed contribution factor for the third quarter 2008 is 0.114 or
11.4%.

http://law.justia.com/us/cfr/title47/47-1.0.1.1.9.html
Interconnected VoIP service. An interconnected Voice over Internet
protocol (VoIP) service is a service that:

(1) Enables real-time, two-way voice communications;

(2) Requires a broadband connection from the user's location;

(3) Requires Internet protocol-compatible customer premises equipment
(CPE); and

(4) Permits users generally to receive calls that originate on the
public switched telephone network and to terminate calls to the public
switched telephone network.


note the use of "and" it means that you must meet all 4 criteria or you
arent an "interconnected voip provider".  Stanaphone split their inbound
and outbound service specifically to avoid this, I havent heard any
lawsuits over this, but I havent looked either to see if they are
successful in doing this.  They may have changed their program in
response.  

So you have options, #1 is almost always a given, #2 can be avoided by
not _requiring_ one (gsm/g.729/ilbc/etc limit channels so it works over
a modem or other non-broadband connection), #3 applies almost always
unless you do ipx or something silly that way, even an asterisk box
would count as CPE.  And I covered #4 options before, remember the word
"and" is in that one too.  

The more you can get around the more likely it is that your claim you
arent a "interconnected voip provider" counts.  Course you will have to
pay USF if you dont qualify, since ultimately the pstn carriers will
have to charge someone or get an exemption (such as a FCC 499 number,
not required but often is what is used).

USF is also only payable per the FCC order if your contribution is
$10k/year or more you also only have to do the 499A (annual) not the
499Q (quarterly) filings.  So you *might* be able to get a number, then
not pay because you dont owe but get an exception from the carrier.
Odds are that wouldnt be exactly legal though, they want *someone* to
pay.  But it is based on "end user" revenues, and you are just reselling
so there is a hook that may work for you.  Talk to legal though.

In addition this definition applies to CALEA (wiretap) and E911
services, if you dont qualify as an "interconnected voip provider" you
dont have to do those things either, if you do qualify you must.

> 
-- 
Trixter http://www.0xdecafbad.com     Bret McDanel
Belfast +44 28 9099 6461        US +1 516 687 5200
http://www.trxtel.com the phone company that pays you!