San Francisco County Municipal Code Art. 10B Access Line Tax

Sec. 780. Purpose. Sec. 781. Definitions. Sec. 782. Imposition of Access Line Tax. Sec. 783. Exemptions. Sec. 784. Tax Schedule. Sec. 785. Collection of Tax. Sec. 786. Administration of Tax.

SEC. 780. PURPOSE.

The tax imposed and levied by this Article is intended to provide revenue for such general fund services as may be determined by the Board of Supervisors including, without limitation, police, fire, and emergency services. (Added by Proposition O, § 2, 11/4/2008) SEC. 781. DEFINITIONS. When used in this Article, the following terms shall have the following meanings: (a) Access Line. "Access line" means any connection, whether by wire or by wireless technology, from a customer location to a provider of telephone communications services offered to the public for compensation. "Access line" includes the assignment of a 10- digit telephone number under the North American Numbering Plan for the purpose of providing telephone communications services, including without limitation voice over Internet protocol telephone communications services, using such telephone number. (b) Billing Address. "Billing address" has the meaning given in Article 10 of this Code. (c) High Capacity Trunk Line. "High capacity trunk line" shall mean a trunk line with a capacity of at least 24 channels over a high capacity service. (d) Lifeline Service. "Lifeline service" means discounted telephone communications service available to eligible low income residential customers. (e) Prepaid Calling Service. "Prepaid calling service" means the right to access telephone communications service, which must be paid for in advance and which enables the origination of calls using an access number or authorization code, whether manually or electronically dialed, and that is sold in predetermined units or dollars of which the number declines with use in a known amount, without the provisioning of an access line. (f) Post-Paid Calling Service. "Post-paid calling service" means the telecommunications service obtained by making a payment on a call-by-call basis either through the use of a credit card or payment mechanism such as a bank card, travel card, credit card, or debit card, or by charge made to a telephone number which is not associated with the origination or termination of the telecommunications service without the provisioning of an access line. (g) Service Address. "Service address" has the meaning given in Article 10 of this Code. (h) Telephone Communications Service. "Telephone communications service" has the meaning given in Article 10 of this Code. (i) Service Supplier. "Service supplier" means any person supplying an access line to any telephone communications service subscriber within the City and County of San Francisco or the billing agent of any such person. (j) Telephone Communications Service Subscriber. "Telephone communications service subscriber" means any person required to pay a tax under this Article. (k) Trunk Line. "Trunk line" means a line between a service supplier's switching device and a private branch exchange or automatic call distributing system, or other similar device, at a telephone communications service subscriber location, provided however that "trunk line" shall not include any such line which is marketed to customers and configured by the service supplier to deliver only calls to the subscriber location and cannot be used by the subscriber to originate outgoing calls from the subscriber location (e.g., direct inward dial lines). (Added by Proposition O, § 2, 11/4/2008) SEC. 782. IMPOSITION OF ACCESS LINE TAX. (a) There is hereby imposed a tax as provided in this Article 10B on every person who subscribes to telephone communications services within the City and County of San Francisco, to the extent permitted by Federal and State law. The tax shall apply to each access line within the City’s tax jurisdiction, including, without limitation, access lines billed to a telephone account having a situs in the City, as permitted by the Mobile Telecommunications Sourcing Act, 4 U.S.C. § 116 et seq. There is a rebuttable presumption that service billed to a billing address or provided to a service address in the City is used, in whole or in part, within the City’s boundaries and that such service is subject to taxation under this Article. The tax shall not apply to a prepaid calling service or a post-paid calling service. (b) The amount of the tax imposed by this Section 782 shall be paid, on a per-access-line basis, subject to the provisions in subsection (d), by the person paying for telephone communications service; however, no telephone communications service subscriber shall be required to pay more than $55,000 in tax per account per service location in any calendar year. The cost of wireless telephone communications services shall not be considered for purposes of this subsection (b). The cap established by this subsection shall be adjusted annually in accordance with the increase in the Consumer Price Index; All Urban Consumers for the San Francisco/Oakland/San Jose Area for All Items as reported by the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics, or any successor to that index, as of December 31 of each year, beginning with December 31, 2009, and such increase shall take effect when 1) notice of the increase is given by the

Controller in the manner generally used by the Controller for notification of fee or tax changes and 2) such increase is approved by the Mayor and Board of Supervisors by resolution. (c) Only one payment of the tax shall be required for any access line, trunk line, or high capacity trunk line, notwithstanding that access lines of more than one person are used in furnishing telephone communications service to a telephone communications service subscriber. (d) The number of access lines subject to tax under this Section 782 for voice over Internet protocol services shall be the number of access lines determined under the definition of “access line” in Section 781(a); provided, however, if there is a lesser number of connections that the person who subscribes to the voice over Internet protocol services can maintain at the same time under such services, the lesser number shall be subject to the tax. (e) Subsection (d) of this Section 782 shall be operative for tax periods commencing on the first day of the month following the end of the 60-day period commencing on the date that the Tax Collector provides the written notification required by Section 799(a)(5) of the California Public Utilities Code. (Added by Proposition O, § 2, 11/4/2008; amended by Ord. 11-26, File No. 251002, App. 2/13/2026, Eff. 3/16/2026) SEC. 783. EXEMPTIONS. Nothing in this Article shall be construed as imposing a tax upon the access lines of: (a) A customer receiving Lifeline service; or (b) A service supplier; or (c) Coin-operated telephones; or (d) A nonprofit hospital which is exempt from federal income tax under Section 501(a) of the United States Code; or (e) A nonprofit educational organization which is exempt from income tax under Section 501(a) of the United States Code; or (f) Any person when imposition of such tax upon that person would violate the Constitution of the United States or that of the State of California or preemptive Federal or State law. (Added by Proposition O, § 2, 11/4/2008) SEC. 784. TAX SCHEDULE. The amount of the tax shall be $2.75 per month per access line, $20.62 per month per trunk line and $371.15 per month per high capacity line. These amounts shall be adjusted annually in accordance with the increase in the Consumer Price Index: All Urban Consumers for the San Francisco/Oakland/San Jose Area for All Items as reported by the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics, or any successor to that index, as of December 31st of each year, beginning with December 31, 2009, and such increase shall take effect 1) when notice of the increase is given by the Controller in the manner generally used by the Controller for notification of fee or tax changes and 2) such increase is approved by the Mayor and Board of Supervisors by resolution. (Added by Proposition O, § 2, 11/4/2008) SEC. 785. COLLECTION OF TAX. (a) The tax imposed by this Article shall be collected from the telephone communications service subscriber by the service supplier. (b) The tax required to be collected by service suppliers under this ordinance shall be added to and stated separately in the service supplier's billings to telephone communications service subscribers. The charge in such billings shall include only the amount authorized by this Article, and shall not include any additional charges or fees which may be imposed by the service supplier to recover the cost of collecting the tax. (c) Nothing in this Article is intended to regulate the ability of a service supplier to recover any costs of collecting the tax imposed under this Article, to the extent such that recovery may be authorized by state or federal law. (d) Except as otherwise stated in this Article, the tax imposed by this Article shall be collected and remitted at the same time as and in the same manner as the tax imposed by Section 703 of Article 10. (Added by Proposition O, § 2, 11/4/2008)

SEC. 786. ADMINISTRATION OF TAX. Except as otherwise stated in this Article, the tax imposed by this Article shall be administered in the same manner as the tax imposed by Section 703 of Article 10. (Added by Proposition O, § 2, 11/4/2008)