AN ACT RELATIVE TO THE TAX TREATMENT OF PREPAID CALLING ARRANGEMENTS.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in General Court assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:
SECTION 1. The definition of "Sale at retail" in section 1 of chapter 64H of the General Laws, as amended by section 27 of chapter 186 of the acts of 2002, is hereby further amended by striking out the last sentence and inserting in place thereof the following sentences:- In the case of the sale or recharge of prepaid calling arrangements, the sale or recharge of such arrangements shall be deemed to be within the commonwealth if the transfer for consideration physically takes place at a retail establishment in the commonwealth. In the absence of such physical transfer for consideration at a retail establishment, the sale or recharge shall be deemed a retail sale within the commonwealth if the customer's shipping address is in the commonwealth or, if there is no item shipped, if the customer's billing address or the location associated with the customer's mobile telephone number, as applicable, is in the commonwealth. For purposes of collection of the tax imposed by this chapter on such sales, such sale shall be deemed to occur on the date that the bill is first issued by the vendor in the regular course of its business; provided, however, in the case of prepaid calling arrangements, the sale shall be deemed to occur on the date of the transfer for consideration.
SECTION 2. Said section 1 of said chapter 64H is hereby further amended by inserting after the definition of "Person" the following definition:-
"Prepaid calling arrangement", the right to exclusively purchase telecommunications services, that shall be paid for in advance and enables the origination of the calls using an access number or authorization code, whether manually or electronically dialed.