Section 150.105  Rate and Base of Tax

a)         The rate of the Use Tax after December 31, 1989, is 6.25% of the selling price of the tangible personal property involved, provided that if the property that is purchased at retail from a retailer is acquired outside Illinois and used outside Illinois before being brought to Illinois for use here and is nevertheless taxable under the Use Tax Act, the "selling price" on which the tax is computed shall be reduced by an amount which represents a reasonable allowance for depreciation for the period of such prior out-of-State use.

b)         On and after January 1, 2001, prepaid telephone calling arrangements shall be considered tangible personal property subject to the tax imposed under this Act regardless of the form in which those arrangements may be embodied, transmitted, or fixed by any method now known or hereafter developed. (Section 3 of the Act) "Prepaid telephone calling arrangements" means the right to exclusively purchase telephone or telecommunications services that must be paid for in advance and enable the origination of one or more intrastate, interstate, or international telephone calls or other telecommunications using an access number, an authorization code, or both, whether manually or electronically dialed, for which payment to a retailer must be made in advance, provided that, unless recharged, no further service is provided once that prepaid amount of service has been consumed.  Prepaid telephone calling arrangements include the recharge of a prepaid calling arrangement.  For purposes of this Section, "recharge" means the purchase of additional prepaid telephone or telecommunications services whether or not the purchaser acquires a different access number or authorization code.  For purposes of this Section, "telecommunications" means that term as defined in Section 2 of the Telecommunications Excise Tax Act [35 ILCS 630].  "Prepaid telephone calling arrangement" does not include an arrangement whereby the service provider reflects the amount of the purchase as a credit on an account for a customer under an existing subscription plan. (Section 3-27 of the Act)

(Source:  Amended at 25 Ill. Reg. 5059, effective March 23, 2001)