35 ILCS 635/10

(35 ILCS 635/10)

Sec. 10. Definitions.

(a) "Gross charges" means the amount paid to a telecommunications retailer for the act or privilege of originating or receiving telecommunications in this State and for all services rendered in connection therewith, valued in money whether paid in money or otherwise, including cash, credits, services, and property of every kind or nature, and shall be determined without any deduction on account of the cost of such telecommunications, the cost of the materials used, labor or service costs, or any other expense whatsoever. In case credit is extended, the amount thereof shall be included only as and when paid. "Gross charges" for private line service shall include charges imposed at each channel termination point within this State, charges for the channel mileage between each channel termination point within this State, and charges for that portion of the interstate inter-office channel provided within Illinois. Charges for that portion of the interstate inter-office channel provided in Illinois shall be determined by the retailer as follows: (i) for interstate inter-office channels having 2 channel termination points, only one of which is in Illinois, 50% of the total charge imposed; or (ii) for interstate inter-office channels having more than 2 channel termination points, one or more of which are in Illinois, an amount equal to the total charge multiplied by a fraction, the numerator of which is the number of channel termination points within Illinois and the denominator of which is the total number of channel termination points. Prior to January 1, 2004, any method consistent with this paragraph or other method that reasonably apportions the total charges for interstate inter-office channels among the states in which channel terminations points are located shall be accepted as a reasonable method to determine the charges for that portion of the interstate inter-office channel provided within Illinois for that period. However, "gross charges" shall not include any of the following:

(1) Any amounts added to a purchaser's bill because of a charge made under: (i) the fee imposed by this Section, (ii) additional charges added to a purchaser's bill under Section 9-221 or 9-222 of the Public Utilities Act, (iii) the tax imposed by the Telecommunications Excise Tax Act, (iv) 911 surcharges, (v) the tax imposed by Section 4251 of the Internal Revenue Code, or (vi) the tax imposed by the Simplified Municipal Telecommunications Tax Act.

(2) Charges for a sent collect telecommunication received outside of this State.

(3) Charges for leased time on equipment or charges for the storage of data or information or subsequent retrieval or the processing of data or information intended to change its form or content. Such equipment includes, but is not limited to, the use of calculators, computers, data processing equipment, tabulating equipment, or accounting equipment and also includes the usage of computers under a time-sharing agreement.

(4) Charges for customer equipment, including such equipment that is leased or rented by the customer from any source, wherein such charges are disaggregated and separately identified from other charges.

(5) Charges to business enterprises certified under Section 9-222.1 of the Public Utilities Act to the extent of such exemption and during the period of time specified by the Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity.

(5.1) Charges to business enterprises certified under Section 95 of the Reimagining Energy and Vehicles in Illinois Act, to the extent of the exemption and during the period of time specified by the Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity.

(5.2) Charges to business enterprises certified under Section 110-95 of the Manufacturing Illinois Chips for Real Opportunity (MICRO) Act, to the extent of the exemption and during the period of time specified by the Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity.

(5.3) Charges to entities certified under Section 605-1115 of the Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity Law of the Civil Administrative Code of Illinois to the extent of the exemption and during the period of time specified by the Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity.

(6) Charges for telecommunications and all services and equipment provided in connection therewith between a parent corporation and its wholly owned subsidiaries or between wholly owned subsidiaries, and only to the extent that the charges between the parent corporation and wholly owned subsidiaries or between wholly owned subsidiaries represent expense allocation between the corporations and not the generation of profit other than a regulatory required profit for the corporation rendering such services.

(7) Bad debts ("bad debt" means any portion of a debt that is related to a sale at retail for which gross charges are not otherwise deductible or excludable that has become worthless or uncollectible, as determined under applicable federal income tax standards; if the portion of the debt deemed to be bad is subsequently paid, the retailer shall report and pay the tax on that portion during the reporting period in which the payment is made).

(8) Charges paid by inserting coins in coin-operated telecommunication devices.

(9) Charges for nontaxable services or telecommunications if (i) those charges are aggregated with other charges for telecommunications that are taxable, (ii) those charges are not separately stated on the customer bill or invoice, and (iii) the retailer can reasonably identify the nontaxable charges on the retailer's books and records kept in the regular course of business. If the nontaxable charges cannot reasonably be identified, the gross charge from the sale of both taxable and nontaxable services or telecommunications billed on a combined basis shall be attributed to the taxable services or telecommunications. The burden of proving nontaxable charges shall be on the retailer of the telecommunications.

(a-5) "Department" means the Illinois Department of Revenue.

(b) "Telecommunications" includes, but is not limited to, messages or information transmitted through use of local, toll, and wide area telephone service, channel services, telegraph services, teletypewriter service, computer exchange services, private line services, specialized mobile radio services, or any other transmission of messages or information by electronic or similar means, between or among points by wire, cable, fiber optics, laser, microwave, radio, satellite, or similar facilities. Unless the context clearly requires otherwise, "telecommunications" shall also include wireless telecommunications as hereinafter defined. "Telecommunications" shall not include value added services in which computer processing applications are used to act on the form, content, code, and protocol of the information for purposes other than transmission. "Telecommunications" shall not include purchase of telecommunications by a telecommunications service provider for use as a component part of the service provided by him or her to the ultimate retail consumer who originates or terminates the end-to-end communications. Retailer access charges, right of access charges, charges for use of intercompany facilities, and all telecommunications resold in the subsequent provision and used as a component of, or integrated into, end-to-end telecommunications service shall not be included in gross charges as sales for resale. "Telecommunications" shall not include the provision of cable services through a cable system as defined in the Cable Communications Act of 1984 (47 U.S.C. Sections 521 and following) as now or hereafter amended or through an open video system as defined in the Rules of the Federal Communications Commission (47 C.D.F. 76.1550 and following) as now or hereafter amended. Beginning January 1, 2001, prepaid telephone calling arrangements shall not be considered "telecommunications" subject to the tax imposed under this Act. For purposes of this Section, "prepaid telephone calling arrangements" means that term as defined in Section 2-27 of the Retailers' Occupation Tax Act.

(c) "Wireless telecommunications" includes cellular mobile telephone services, personal wireless services as defined in Section 704(C) of the Telecommunications Act of 1996 (Public Law No. 104-104) as now or hereafter amended, including all commercial mobile radio services, and paging services.

(d) "Telecommunications retailer" or "retailer" or "carrier" means and includes every person engaged in the business of making sales of telecommunications at retail as defined in this Section. The Department may, in its discretion, upon applications, authorize the collection of the fee hereby imposed by any retailer not maintaining a place of business within this State, who, to the satisfaction of the Department, furnishes adequate security to insure collection and payment of the fee. When so authorized, it shall be the duty of such retailer to pay the fee upon all of the gross charges for telecommunications in the same manner and subject to the same requirements as a retailer maintaining a place of business within this State.

(e) "Retailer maintaining a place of business in this State", or any like term, means and includes any retailer having or maintaining within this State, directly or by a subsidiary, an office, distribution facilities, transmission facilities, sales office, warehouse, or other place of business, or any agent or other representative operating within this State under the authority of the retailer or its subsidiary, irrespective of whether such place of business or agent or other representative is located here permanently or temporarily, or whether such retailer or subsidiary is licensed to do business in this State.

(f) "Sale of telecommunications at retail" means the transmitting, supplying, or furnishing of telecommunications and all services rendered in connection therewith for a consideration, other than between a parent corporation and its wholly owned subsidiaries or between wholly owned subsidiaries, when the gross charge made by one such corporation to another such corporation is not greater than the gross charge paid to the retailer for their use or consumption and not for sale.

(g) "Service address" means the location of telecommunications equipment from which telecommunications services are originated or at which telecommunications services are received. If this is not a defined location, as in the case of wireless telecommunications, paging systems, maritime systems, service address means the customer's place of primary use as defined in the Mobile Telecommunications Sourcing Conformity Act. For air-to-ground systems, and the like, "service address" shall mean the location of the customer's primary use of the telecommunications equipment as defined by the location in Illinois where bills are sent.

(Source: P.A. 102-1125, eff. 2-3-23; 103-595, eff. 6-26-24.)