[asterisk-biz] Federal and State Surcharges and Taxes

[Trixter aka Bret McDanel]

On Wed, 2008-08-06 at 02:41 -0400, Peter Beckman wrote:
>   Bret, thanks for the informative reply earlier.  While I believe most
>   people doing VoIP related things avoid the federal taxes and such, I'm
>   curious what you know about state and local taxes that may be applicable?
> 

that is a really hard thing to answer.  For example:
server at chicago equinix, business in california, DIDs from alaska,
customers in florida.  Who gets taxed?  Who gets paid?  Technically
speaking california is the only one that can assess tax on the
*business* (although some states like california are trying to force
merchants to pay tax for any sales to their state even if they dont have
an office there, something that may not be legal).

If you buy something over the intarweb from an out of state merchant,
you are *supposed* to report the purchase and pay the tax yourself.
Very few even know they are supposed to, and a smaller number actually
do (why NY agents go into NJ often and write down the plates of NY cars
that are in the parking lot at a particular large shopping center).  So
basically your customers are supposed to pay any applicable sales tax
for purchases if they are in a state you are not in.  This may change in
the future as more and more states are hurting on revenue from
online/mailorder sales.

Another example of tax issues may be due to abuse of the fact that the
US does not have a law requiring a US entity to get DIDs.  This may also
become one of those challenged things where the government claims global
jurisdiction (as they do with the hacking statute, income tax, and a few
other laws).  So if you are in say the Bahamas, and only in the Bahamas,
do you have any tax liability (the govt claims yes for income at least
if you have 1 or more sales into the US - and they will tax on global
income not just the US income ...) Odds are they would make a similar
thing over the USF monies since the definition of an "interconnected
voip provider" has no wording to limit it to US operations and an
argument could be made that a US did qualifies.


>   While I have searched and googled at length, and found that indeed federal
>   taxes are not applicable to my use, I've not found anything definitive
>   about taxes levied by states or local government when it comes to
>   VoIP-enabled services or VoIP-switched calls, nor when taxes may be
>   applicable.  For example, what determines the tax law?  Is it where:
> 
its where the govt thinks they can get money out of you.  Anything else
is an "untested legal theory" :P  Some states have gone after income tax
for telecommuters, do you really think they will care about where the
call originates/terminates?  Where the switch is?  Or anything else that
way?

They have a legalized protection racket "pay us or bad things will
happen to you" and they arent likely to relax that anytime soon.


In short I dont know what they would do in this particular situation,
the safe bet would be to pay as though you were a certified lec and hope
that you dont have to pay in each state that DIDs come from.  While I
strongly disagree with the FCC claiming the intarweb for their own (so
does eff.org so its not an insane disagreement I have) this is one
situation where it does simplify things if they did it.  I just think
that if they did more than they already have they will break stuff
badly.


-- 
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!