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90_HB1093
65 ILCS 5/8-11-2 from Ch. 24, par. 8-11-2
Amends the Illinois Municipal Code. Provides that a
municipality that imposes certain privilege taxes may reduce
the rate of the tax or eliminate the tax for persons 65 years
of age or older.
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1 AN ACT to amend the Illinois Municipal Code by changing
2 Section 8-11-2.
3 Be it enacted by the People of the State of Illinois,
4 represented in the General Assembly:
5 Section 5. The Illinois Municipal Code is amended by
6 changing Section 8-11-2 as follows:
7 (65 ILCS 5/8-11-2) (from Ch. 24, par. 8-11-2)
8 Sec. 8-11-2. The corporate authorities of any
9 municipality may tax any or all of the following occupations
10 or privileges:
11 1. Persons engaged in the business of transmitting
12 messages by means of electricity or radio magnetic waves,
13 or fiber optics, at a rate not to exceed 5% of the gross
14 receipts from that business originating within the
15 corporate limits of the municipality.
16 2. Persons engaged in the business of distributing,
17 supplying, furnishing, or selling gas for use or
18 consumption within the corporate limits of a municipality
19 of 500,000 or fewer population, and not for resale, at a
20 rate not to exceed 5% of the gross receipts therefrom.
21 2a. Persons engaged in the business of
22 distributing, supplying, furnishing, or selling gas for
23 use or consumption within the corporate limits of a
24 municipality of over 500,000 population, and not for
25 resale, at a rate not to exceed 8% of the gross receipts
26 therefrom. If imposed, this tax shall be paid in monthly
27 payments.
28 3. Persons engaged in the business of distributing,
29 supplying, furnishing, or selling electricity for use or
30 consumption within the corporate limits of the
31 municipality, and not for resale, at a rate not to exceed
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1 5% of the gross receipts therefrom.
2 4. Persons engaged in the business of distributing,
3 supplying, furnishing, or selling water for use or
4 consumption within the corporate limits of the
5 municipality, and not for resale, at a rate not to exceed
6 5% of the gross receipts therefrom.
7 None of the taxes authorized by this Section may be
8 imposed with respect to any transaction in interstate
9 commerce or otherwise to the extent to which the business may
10 not, under the constitution and statutes of the United
11 States, be made the subject of taxation by this State or any
12 political sub-division thereof; nor shall any persons engaged
13 in the business of distributing, supplying, furnishing, or
14 selling gas, water, or electricity, or engaged in the
15 business of transmitting messages be subject to taxation
16 under the provisions of this Section for those transactions
17 that are or may become subject to taxation under the
18 provisions of the "Municipal Retailers' Occupation Tax Act"
19 authorized by Section 8-11-1; nor shall any tax authorized by
20 this Section be imposed upon any person engaged in a business
21 unless the tax is imposed in like manner and at the same rate
22 upon all persons engaged in businesses of the same class in
23 the municipality, whether privately or municipally owned or
24 operated.
25 Any of the taxes enumerated in this Section may be in
26 addition to the payment of money, or value of products or
27 services furnished to the municipality by the taxpayer as
28 compensation for the use of its streets, alleys, or other
29 public places, or installation and maintenance therein,
30 thereon or thereunder of poles, wires, pipes or other
31 equipment used in the operation of the taxpayer's business.
32 (a) If the corporate authorities of any home rule
33 municipality have adopted an ordinance that imposed a tax on
34 public utility customers, between July 1, 1971, and October
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1 1, 1981, on the good faith belief that they were exercising
2 authority pursuant to Section 6 of Article VII of the 1970
3 Illinois Constitution, that action of the corporate
4 authorities shall be declared legal and valid,
5 notwithstanding a later decision of a judicial tribunal
6 declaring the ordinance invalid. No municipality shall be
7 required to rebate, refund, or issue credits for any taxes
8 described in this paragraph, and those taxes shall be deemed
9 to have been levied and collected in accordance with the
10 Constitution and laws of this State.
11 (b) In any case in which (i) prior to October 19, 1979,
12 the corporate authorities of any municipality have adopted an
13 ordinance imposing a tax authorized by this Section (or by
14 the predecessor provision of the "Revised Cities and Villages
15 Act") and have explicitly or in practice interpreted gross
16 receipts to include either charges added to customers' bills
17 pursuant to the provision of paragraph (a) of Section 36 of
18 the Public Utilities Act or charges added to customers' bills
19 by taxpayers who are not subject to rate regulation by the
20 Illinois Commerce Commission for the purpose of recovering
21 any of the tax liabilities or other amounts specified in such
22 paragraph (a) of Section 36 of that Act, and (ii) on or after
23 October 19, 1979, a judicial tribunal has construed gross
24 receipts to exclude all or part of those charges, then
25 neither those municipality nor any taxpayer who paid the tax
26 shall be required to rebate, refund, or issue credits for any
27 tax imposed or charge collected from customers pursuant to
28 the municipality's interpretation prior to October 19, 1979.
29 This paragraph reflects a legislative finding that it would
30 be contrary to the public interest to require a municipality
31 or its taxpayers to refund taxes or charges attributable to
32 the municipality's more inclusive interpretation of gross
33 receipts prior to October 19, 1979, and is not intended to
34 prescribe or limit judicial construction of this Section. The
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1 legislative finding set forth in this subsection does not
2 apply to taxes imposed after the effective date of this
3 amendatory Act of 1995.
4 (c) (Blank).
5 (d) For the purpose of the taxes enumerated in this
6 Section:
7 "Gross receipts" means the consideration received for the
8 transmission of messages, the consideration received for
9 distributing, supplying, furnishing or selling gas for use or
10 consumption and not for resale, and the consideration
11 received for distributing, supplying, furnishing or selling
12 electricity for use or consumption and not for resale, and
13 the consideration received for distributing, supplying,
14 furnishing or selling water for use or consumption and not
15 for resale, and for all services rendered in connection
16 therewith valued in money, whether received in money or
17 otherwise, including cash, credit, services and property of
18 every kind and material and for all services rendered
19 therewith, and shall be determined without any deduction on
20 account of the cost of transmitting such messages, without
21 any deduction on account of the cost of the service, product
22 or commodity supplied, the cost of materials used, labor or
23 service cost, or any other expenses whatsoever. "Gross
24 receipts" shall not include that portion of the consideration
25 received for distributing, supplying, furnishing, or selling
26 gas, electricity, or water to, or for the transmission of
27 messages for, business enterprises described in paragraph (e)
28 of this Section to the extent and during the period in which
29 the exemption authorized by paragraph (e) is in effect or for
30 persons 65 years of age or older, school districts, or units
31 of local government described in paragraph (f) during the
32 period in which the exemption authorized in paragraph (f) is
33 in effect.
34 For utility bills issued on or after May 1, 1996, but
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1 before May 1, 1997, and for receipts from those utility
2 bills, "gross receipts" does not include one-third of (i)
3 amounts added to customers' bills under Section 9-222 of the
4 Public Utilities Act, or (ii) amounts added to customers'
5 bills by taxpayers who are not subject to rate regulation by
6 the Illinois Commerce Commission for the purpose of
7 recovering any of the tax liabilities described in Section
8 9-222 of the Public Utilities Act. For utility bills issued
9 on or after May 1, 1997, but before May 1, 1998, and for
10 receipts from those utility bills, "gross receipts" does not
11 include two-thirds of (i) amounts added to customers' bills
12 under Section 9-222 of the Public Utilities Act, or (ii)
13 amount added to customers' bills by taxpayers who are not
14 subject to rate regulation by the Illinois Commerce
15 Commission for the purpose of recovering any of the tax
16 liabilities described in Section 9-222 of the Public
17 Utilities Act. For utility bills issued on or after May 1,
18 1998, and for receipts from those utility bills, "gross
19 receipts" does not include (i) amounts added to customers'
20 bills under Section 9-222 of the Public Utilities Act, or
21 (ii) amounts added to customers' bills by taxpayers who are
22 not subject to rate regulation by the Illinois Commerce
23 Commission for the purpose of recovering any of the tax
24 liabilities described in Section 9-222 of the Public
25 Utilities Act.
26 For purposes of this Section "gross receipts" shall not
27 include (i) amounts added to customers' bills under Section
28 9-221 of the Public Utilities Act, or (ii) charges added to
29 customers' bills to recover the surcharge imposed under the
30 Emergency Telephone System Act. This paragraph is not
31 intended to nor does it make any change in the meaning of
32 "gross receipts" for the purposes of this Section, but is
33 intended to remove possible ambiguities, thereby confirming
34 the existing meaning of "gross receipts" prior to the
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1 effective date of this amendatory Act of 1995.
2 The words "transmitting messages", in addition to the
3 usual and popular meaning of person to person communication,
4 shall include the furnishing, for a consideration, of
5 services or facilities (whether owned or leased), or both, to
6 persons in connection with the transmission of messages where
7 those persons do not, in turn, receive any consideration in
8 connection therewith, but shall not include such furnishing
9 of services or facilities to persons for the transmission of
10 messages to the extent that any such services or facilities
11 for the transmission of messages are furnished for a
12 consideration, by those persons to other persons, for the
13 transmission of messages.
14 "Person" as used in this Section means any natural
15 individual, firm, trust, estate, partnership, association,
16 joint stock company, joint adventure, corporation, municipal
17 corporation or political subdivision of this State, or a
18 receiver, trustee, guardian or other representative appointed
19 by order of any court.
20 "Public utility" shall have the meaning ascribed to it in
21 Section 3-105 of the Public Utilities Act and shall include
22 telecommunications carriers as defined in Section 13-202 of
23 that Act.
24 In the case of persons engaged in the business of
25 transmitting messages through the use of mobile equipment,
26 such as cellular phones and paging systems, the gross
27 receipts from the business shall be deemed to originate
28 within the corporate limits of a municipality only if the
29 address to which the bills for the service are sent is within
30 those corporate limits. If, however, that address is not
31 located within a municipality that imposes a tax under this
32 Section, then (i) if the party responsible for the bill is
33 not an individual, the gross receipts from the business shall
34 be deemed to originate within the corporate limits of the
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1 municipality where that party's principal place of business
2 in Illinois is located, and (ii) if the party responsible for
3 the bill is an individual, the gross receipts from the
4 business shall be deemed to originate within the corporate
5 limits of the municipality where that party's principal
6 residence in Illinois is located.
7 (e) Any municipality that imposes taxes upon public
8 utilities pursuant to this Section whose territory includes
9 any part of an enterprise zone or federally designated
10 Foreign Trade Zone or Sub-Zone may, by a majority vote of its
11 corporate authorities, exempt from those taxes for a period
12 not exceeding 20 years any specified percentage of gross
13 receipts of public utilities received from business
14 enterprises that:
15 (1) either (i) make investments that cause the
16 creation of a minimum of 200 full-time equivalent jobs in
17 Illinois or (ii) make investments that cause the
18 retention of a minimum of 1,000 full-time jobs in
19 Illinois; and
20 (2) are either (i) located in an Enterprise Zone
21 established pursuant to the Illinois Enterprise Zone Act
22 or (ii) Department of Commerce and Community Affairs
23 designated High Impact Businesses located in a federally
24 designated Foreign Trade Zone or Sub-Zone; and
25 (3) are certified by the Department of Commerce and
26 Community Affairs as complying with the requirements
27 specified in clauses (1) and (2) of this paragraph (e).
28 Upon adoption of the ordinance authorizing the exemption,
29 the municipal clerk shall transmit a copy of that ordinance
30 to the Department of Commerce and Community Affairs. The
31 Department of Commerce and Community Affairs shall determine
32 whether the business enterprises located in the municipality
33 meet the criteria prescribed in this paragraph. If the
34 Department of Commerce and Community Affairs determines that
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1 the business enterprises meet the criteria, it shall grant
2 certification. The Department of Commerce and Community
3 Affairs shall act upon certification requests within 30 days
4 after receipt of the ordinance.
5 Upon certification of the business enterprise by the
6 Department of Commerce and Community Affairs, the Department
7 of Commerce and Community Affairs shall notify the Department
8 of Revenue of the certification. The Department of Revenue
9 shall notify the public utilities of the exemption status of
10 the gross receipts received from the certified business
11 enterprises. Such exemption status shall be effective within
12 3 months after certification.
13 (f) A municipality that imposes taxes upon public
14 utilities under this Section and whose territory includes
15 part of another unit of local government or a school district
16 may by ordinance exempt the other unit of local government or
17 school district from those taxes.
18 A municipality that imposes taxes upon public utilities
19 or telecommunications carriers under this Section may, by
20 ordinance, (i) reduce the rate of the tax for persons 65
21 years of age or older or (ii) exempt persons 65 years of age
22 or older from those taxes.
23 (g) The amendment of this Section by Public Act 84-127
24 shall take precedence over any other amendment of this
25 Section by any other amendatory Act passed by the 84th
26 General Assembly before the effective date of Public Act
27 84-127.
28 (h) In any case in which, before July 1, 1992, a person
29 engaged in the business of transmitting messages through the
30 use of mobile equipment, such as cellular phones and paging
31 systems, has determined the municipality within which the
32 gross receipts from the business originated by reference to
33 the location of its transmitting or switching equipment, then
34 (i) neither the municipality to which tax was paid on that
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1 basis nor the taxpayer that paid tax on that basis shall be
2 required to rebate, refund, or issue credits for any such tax
3 or charge collected from customers to reimburse the taxpayer
4 for the tax and (ii) no municipality to which tax would have
5 been paid with respect to those gross receipts if the
6 provisions of this amendatory Act of 1991 had been in effect
7 before July 1, 1992, shall have any claim against the
8 taxpayer for any amount of the tax.
9 (Source: P.A. 88-132; 89-325, eff. 1-1-96.)
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