Wisconsin Legislature: Text

For communications connections under a subscription plan (one with regularly occurring payments scheduled), the provider is required to assess 75 cents per connection, per month. If a partial month of service is provided, then the provider is to follow the same procedure it uses with county 911 fees. If the provider does not assess those fees, then it can charge the full fee amount unless its billing system can prorate it. If a customer has more than 10 connections from a particular provider, each connection above 10 is assessed .075 cents per connection, per month. If only a partial payment is received from a customer, the payment is first applied to the provider's charges. Providers must explain the fee on the first bill on which it appears and, if it is listed separately on the bill, must identify the bill in a manner specified in the statute and in the rule.

For prepaid wireless communications connections, the provider or retailer that sells the plan must assess 38 cents per connection sold in retail sales transactions. Retail sales transactions involving prepaid wireless include the sale of a phone and airtime, as well as sales of additional airtime. Whether the source of the sale is Wisconsin is determined using a hierarchy similar to that used for sales tax purposes.

Returns must be filed with the DOR. Fees imposed during one month must be paid to DOR by the end of the following month. Extensions may be granted for good cause. Fees written off as uncollectible and those repaid when an item is returned may be deducted from a later return.

Appeals about amounts due or refunds must be filed with DOR within 60 days of the date on which a notice of amount due, notice of refund, or notice of refund claim denial is received. A request for a redetermination must be filed with DOR as well. If the communications provider or retailer wishes to pursue its appeal further, it must file an objection to the assessment with the commission, which will follow a process similar to that in s. PSC 196.85, Stats., which deals with objections to other PSC assessments.

Resellers are required to file a form with their underlying local exchange carrier certifying that the lines they have purchased will be resold. This ensures that the local exchange carrier is not held responsible for submitting fees on those lines.

Providers and retailers are required to keep records about fee assessment. DOR and the commission can audit for compliance and the commission can bring an action for uncollected fees.

Comparison with federal regulations

The Commission is not aware of any existing or proposed federal legislation on this matter.

Comparison with rules in adjacent states

The Commission is not aware of any similar rules in surrounding states.

Summary of factual data and analytical methodologies

The Commission and the DOR worked together to develop this rule. The current processes used by DOR for the collection of sales and other taxes were considered while developing this rule.

Analysis and supporting documents used to determine effect on small business

The Commission and DOR worked together to develop this rule. The steps taken by DOR to reduce the burden of tax filings on small businesses were taken into account when drafting this rule.

Small Business Impact

While the statute creating this fee and this rule will affect small businesses to some degree, the Commission is unable to estimate the number because the statute and rule apply to all telecommunications providers and to retailers that sell prepaid wireless telecommunications plans. Since the Commission does not regulate wireless telecommunications providers or retail sellers of wireless services, it does not have the data necessary to determine whether those are small businesses. However, the Commission and the Department of Revenue (DOR) worked together to develop this rule. The steps taken by DOR to reduce the burden of tax filings on small businesses were taken into account when drafting this rule.

Fiscal Estimate

Summary

Section 196.025 (6), Stats., and thus this rule implementing it, has a fiscal impact as it will increase costs to businesses and government, although it may be possible to absorb them. The fee created by the statute will be billed to each government and business customer according to a formula based on the number of lines of service they have in groupings of 10. For government, the fee would presumably be offset by revenue collections. For small businesses, the fee would be an additional cost of doing business or recovered in charges to customers.

2009 WI Act 28 created a fee to be paid by telecommunications customers for support of county costs of police and fire protection services. The fee is billed to both residential and business landline and wireless providers including those wireless providers who use pre-paid cards to obtain cellular service. This fee will be billed to state and local government customers and business customers following the definitions in the law and this rule. Federal Government offices will be exempt from the charge because of the federal supremacy clause and the various court interpretations of its applicability in situations similar to those of this fee.

The cost effect on state and local government presumably will be in turn absorbed by collections in revenue. Each government and business customer will be billed according to a formula based on the number of lines of service they have in groupings of 10. Statistics on the number of lines for governments and small businesses are not available without extensive data requests of all providers of landline and cellular services in Wisconsin.

State fiscal effect

Increase in costs that may be possible to absorb within agency's budget.

Types of local governmental units affected

Towns, Villages, Cities, Counties, School Districts.

Affected Ch. 20 appropriations

None.

Long-range fiscal implications

For government, fee offset by revenue collections.

For small business, fee would be additional cost of doing business or recovered in charges to customers.

Text of Proposed Rule

SECTION 1. PSC ch. 172 is created to read:

Chapter PSC 172

Police and Fire Protection Fee on
Communications Connections

PSC 172.01 General. (1) Purpose. The purpose of this chapter is to implement the police and fire protection fee required under s. 196.025(6), Stats.

(2) Exception. Nothing in this chapter shall preclude the commission from giving special and individual consideration to exceptional or unusual circumstances and, upon investigation of the facts and circumstances involved, adopting requirements that may be other or different than those provided in this chapter.

PSC 172.02 Definitions. In this chapter:

(1) “Basic local voice service" means the provision to residential or business customers of an access facility, whether by wire, cable, fiber optics or radio, and essential usage within a local calling area for the transmission of high-quality 2-way interactive switched voice communication.

(2) “Commercial mobile radio service" has the meaning given in 47 USC 332 (d).

(3) “Commission" means the public service commission.

(4) “Communications provider" means a person that provides communications service.

(5) “Communications service" means any of the following:

(a) Retail basic local voice service.

(b) Retail wireless voice service.

(6) “Communications service connection" means a link with a communications network that provides a person the ability to access that network for voice communications.

(7) “Customer" means a person that purchases a communications service connection. “Customer" includes pay telephone providers, but excludes resellers.

(8) “Department" means the department of revenue.

(9) “Fee" means the police and fire protection fee imposed under s. PSC 196.025 (6).

(10) “Official company lines" are communications service connections that are reserved for a communications provider's internal administrative use.

(11) “Prepaid wireless retail transaction" means the sale of a prepaid wireless communications plan with no expectation that it will be resold. A prepaid wireless retail transaction includes any of the following:

(a) The sale of a handset with airtime for a specified dollar amount, or for a specified period time, such as a finite number of minutes of use or days of service.

(b) The sale of additional airtime, including an additional finite dollar amount of service, additional minutes of use or additional days of service, whether the additional airtime was sold at a retail location, over the internet, by mail, or by telephone call.

(12) “Prepaid wireless communications plan" means a plan for wireless voice service that provides a person the right to utilize wireless voice service, is paid for prior to use, and is sold in predetermined dollar amounts whereby a number of units declines with use of a known amount.

(13) “Place of primary use" has the meaning given in 4 USC 124(8).

(14) “Retailer" means a person that sells a prepaid wireless communications plan on behalf of a communications provider.

(15) “Subscriber" means a person that enters into a subscription communications plan with a communications provider.

(16) “Subscription communications plan" means a contract or other service agreement in which a subscriber pays a periodic rate for a communications service, including both recurring and nonrecurring charges, either paid in advance for service to be provided in the subsequent month or paid in arrears for the service previously provided.

(17) “Voice over internet protocol service" means a service that is provided to customers with either a billing address or a place of primary use within the state, that does all of the following:

(a) Enables real-time, two-way voice communications.

(b) Employs a broadband connection from the user's location.

(d) Permits users generally to receive calls that originate on the public switched telephone network and to terminate calls to the public switched telephone network.

(18) “Wireless voice service" means commercial mobile radio service, including the resale of commercial mobile radio service but excluding mobile satellite service, that meets all of the following:

(a) The source of the sale is Wisconsin under s. PSC 172.06 (2)(b).

(b) Offers real-time, two-way switched voice service that is interconnected with the public switched network.

PSC 172.03 Police and fire protection fee. (1) Fee. Except as provided in sub. (2), the fee shall be imposed on all communications service connections with an assigned telephone number, including a communications service provided using a voice over internet protocol connection.

(2) Exemptions. The fee may not be imposed on the following communications service connections:

(a) Those purchased by offices and agencies of the federal government or a sovereign tribe.

(b) Those used as official company lines.

(c) Those sold to resellers that bill end-users for the communications services provided, except that the fee shall be applied by the reseller when the connection is resold to an end-user.

PSC 172.04 Registration. Every communications provider and retailer required to impose the fee shall register with the department, in the manner prescribed by the department, to report and remit the fees.

PSC 172.05 Assessment of fee. (1) Subscription communications plan. (a) Application of fee. A communications provider shall apply a fee of $0.75 per month on each communications service connection established under a subscription telecommunications plan. The communications provider shall remit the fee to the department using the procedure specified in s. PSC 172.06.

(b) Partial month of service. If a communications provider charges a subscriber for less than a full month of subscription communications plan service, the communications provider shall assess the fee in the same way that it assesses the countywide 911 charges under s. 256.35 (3), Stats. A provider that does not assess the 911 fees may assess a full fee if its billing system does not permit the fee to be prorated.

(c) Multi-line service. 1. If a communications provider furnishes multiple communications service connections to a single subscriber account, the communications provider shall impose a fee according to the following schedule:

a. For subscribers with 10 or less communications service connections, $0.75 per connection, per month.

b. For subscribers with more than 10 communications service connections, $7.50 for the first 10 connections plus $0.075 per service connection in excess of 10, per month.

2. a. If a subscriber receives service from more than one communications provider, the communications providers serving the subscriber may not add together the communication service connections to determine the fee imposed on the subscriber. Each communications provider shall determine the fee to be imposed on a subscriber based upon the communication service connections the provider itself provides.

b. A communications provider may not add together the communications service connections from multiple accounts to determine the fee imposed. Only service connections within an account may be added together.

(d) Partial payments. If a subscriber remits to the communications provider an amount less than the full amount billed to the subscriber in a given month, the communications provider shall first apply the partial payment to any amount the subscriber owes to the communications provider for the communications service provided.

(e) Billing identification and information. 1. On its bill, a communications provider shall identify the fee in one of the following ways:

a. List the fee separately from other charges on a subscriber's bill and identify the fee as “police and fire protection fee."

b. Combine the fee with a charge imposed under s. 256.35(3), Stats., and identify the combined fee and charge as “charge for funding countywide 911 systems plus police and fire protection fee."

c. Combine the fee with basic rates and either do not identify the fee separately, or state that the basic rate includes the “police and fire protection fee."

2. On the first bill on which the fee appears, a communications provider offering a subscription communications plan shall inform its subscribers by bill message of the following:

a. The addition of the fee to the monthly bill.

b. The purpose the fee is intended to serve.

(2) Prepaid wireless communication plan. (a) Application of fee. Any retailer or communications provider that sells a Wisconsin communications service connection established under a prepaid wireless communications plan shall impose a $0.38 fee on each prepaid wireless retail transaction. The fee does not apply to the sale of related wireless handset equipment and accessories.

(b) Determining Wisconsin connection. A communications provider or retailer shall determine if a communications service connection that it sells is a Wisconsin communications service connection as follows: