SR-212-002 (4)
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City Council Meeting
Santa Monica~ California
STAFF REPORT
TO:
Mayor and city council
FROM:
city Attorney
SUBJECT:
Ord1nance Amending Santa Monica Municipal Code
Section 6621 to Impose a Tax on Interstate and
International Telephone Communication
At its meeting on April 25~ 1989, the city Council directed
the City Attorney to prepare an ordinance that would impose a tax
on interstate and international telephone communication. In
response to this d1rection~ the accompanying ordinance has been
prepared and 1S presented to the ci ty Council
for its
cons1deration.
In Goldberg v. Sweet, 488 U. s.
102 L. Ed. 2d 607
(1989) I the United States supreme Court upheld an Illinois law
which imposed a telephone tax on interstate communication. The
amendment to Municipal Code Section 6221 closely follows the
Illinois law. Like that law~ the proposed amendment covers only
communication services charged to a local service address and
provides for a refund or credit to any taxpayer that has paid the
same tax to another jurisdiction based on the same transmission.
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RECOMMENDATION
It is respectfully recommended that the accompanying
ordinance be introduced for first reading.
PREPARED BY: Robert M. Myers, city Attorney
Joseph Lawrence, Assistant city Attorney
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CA:RMM:jld261jhpc
city council Meeting
Santa Monica, California
ORDINANCE NUMBER
(City council Series)
AN ORDINANCE OF THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE
CITY OF SANTA MONICA AMENDING SANTA MONICA MUNICIPAL CODE
SECTION 6621 PERTAINING TO THE TELEPHONE USERS' TAX
THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF SANTA MONICA DOES ORDAIN AS
FOLLOWS:
SECTION 1.
Santa Monica Municipal code Section 6621 is
amended to read as follows:
SECTION 6621. Telephone Tax.
(a) There is hereby imposed a tax
upon every person in the City, other than
a
telephone
corporation,
using
intrastate, interstate, and international
telephone communication services in the
c~ty.
The tax imposed by this section
shall be e1ght percent (8%) of all
charges made for such services, which tax
shall be paid by the person paying for
such services, except that any taxpayer
who provides proof that the taxpayer has
properly paid a telephone communication
services tax to a jurisdiction other than
the City of Santa Monica based on the
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same transmission as is taxed by the city
shall be entitled to a refund or credit
for any duplicative tax that the taxpayer
has paid to the City.
(b) As used in this Section, the
following terms are defined as follows:
(1) "Interstate and
international telephone communication
services" are those charges which
originate or terminate within the city of
Santa Monica and are charged to a Santa
Monlca service address.
(2) "Telephone communication
services II mean the transmission of any
communications, messages, or information,
whether by fixed, mobile, portable, or
any other form through electronic or
other means, between or among points by
wire, cable, fiberoptics, laser,
microwave, radio, satellite or other
methods.
(3) "Service address" is the
address where the telephone equipment is
located and to which the telephone number
is assigned.
(e) The duty to collect the tax on
interstate and international telephone
communication services shall commence
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with the first regular billing period of
each service user beginning on or after
September 1, 1989.
(d) As used in this section, the
term "charges" shall not include charges
for services paid for by inserting coins
in coin-operated telephones, except that
where such coin-operated telephone
serVlce is furnished for a guaranteed
amount, the amounts paid under such
guarantee plus any fixed monthly or other
periodic charge shall be included in the
base for computing the amount of tax due;
nor shall the term lItelephone
communication services" include land
mobile services or maritime mobile
services as defined in section 2.l of
Title 47 of the Code of Federal
Regulations, as such section existed on
January I, 1989.
(e) Notwithstanding the provisions
of subsection (a), the tax imposed under
this Section shall not be imposed upon
any person for using intrastate,
interstate, and international telephone
communication services to the extent that
the amounts paid for such services are
exempt from or not subj ect to the tax
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imposed by section 4251 of Title 26 of
the United states Code, as such section
existed on January 1, 1969, without
regard to subsection (b) thereof.
(f) Any taxpayer who claims to be
entitled to a refund for any tax paid
pursuant to this Section shall file an
application for a tax refund with the
Director of Finance. The application
shall be made on a form provided by the
Director and the taxpayer shall provide
under penalty of perjury all facts,
including all documentary evidence, which
supports the claim for a refund. The
Director shall reV1ew all refund
applications and shall determine the
amount, if any, of any refund dUe. The
Director shall notify the taxpayer of his
or her decision in writing by mailing a
copy of the decision to the taxpayer at
the taxpayer's last known address.
All taxpayers claiming a refund
must file their refund applications no
later than one hundred eighty (180) days
following payment of the tax which is the
subject of the application.
The Director's decision shall
final
it
is mailed to
on
the day
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taxpayer and shall not be subject to
further appeal, except that judicial
review of the decision may be sought
pursuant to Sections 1094.5 and 1094.6 of
the California Code of Civil Procedure
only if jUdicial review is commenced no
later than the ninetieth (90th) day
following the date on which the
Director's decislon is made final.
SECTION 2. Any provislon of the Santa Monica Municipal
Code or appendices thereto inconsistent with the provisions of
this Ordinance, to the extent of such inconsistencies and no
further, are hereby repealed or modified to that extent necessary
to affect the provisions of this Ordinance.
SECTION 3. If any sectlon, subsection, sentence, clause,
or phrase of this Ordinance is for any reason held to be invalid
or unconstitutional by a decision of any court of any competent
jurlsdiction, such decision shall not affect the validity of the
remalning portions of this Ordinance. The city Council hereby
declares that It would have passed this Ordinance, and each and
every seetlon, subsectlon, sentence, clause, or phrase not
declared invalid or unconstitutional without regard to whether
any portion of the Ordinance would be subsequently declared
invalid or unconstltutional.
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SECTION 4. The Mayor shall sign and the city Clerk shall
attest to the passage of thlS Ordinance. The City Clerk shall
cause the same to be published once in the official newspaper
within 15 days after its adoption. This Ordinance shall become
effective after 30 days from its adoption.
APPROVED AS TO FORM:
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ROBERT M. MYERS
city Attorney
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