[asterisk-biz] Federal and State Surcharges and Taxes

[Alex Balashov]

I am curious as to the source of such keen clairvoyance that you were 
able to determine that the original poster was inquiring about 
surcharges & taxes applicable to a VoIP provider.

Trixter aka Bret McDanel wrote:
> 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.
> 


-- 
Alex Balashov
Evariste Systems
Web    : http://www.evaristesys.com/
Tel    : (+1) (678) 954-0670
Direct : (+1) (678) 954-0671
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